All I Ever Wanted
by Mouse and Stupid Productions
Summary: Teddy Lupin - musician, ladies man, firm believer that as long as he's going to be famous, it's going to be on his own terms. Victoire Weasley - writer, shy, firm believer that if she's going to be famous, she would rather hide in a broom closet for all of Hogwarts. Yet somehow, they find themselves snogging on a platform. But James Potter was not the only thing to get in their way
1. Prologue

**A/N: So after writing four chapters of this story, I decided it could do with a prologue. The next chapter is Teddy's first year at Hogwarts. The first three chapters are in Teddy's POV, and after that, it'll switch between Victoire and Teddy's points of view. So yeah, that's all I've got. Thank you for your time, and please review!**

He really wasn't supposed to be there. He was nineteen and, yes, his younger siblings might have been on their way to Hogwarts, but he wasn't. There was absolutely no good reason for him to be chasing me down Platform 9 ¾ with a slightly desperate look in his violet eyes.

"Wait, Victoire, just _wait_!" he exclaimed, finally catching up to me and grabbing my arm. I seriously need to run more often if he can catch up to me that quickly.

"What, Teddy?" I asked, trying not to be annoyed with him. It was sort of sweet, maybe. Just…annoying. And sort of pointless.

"I just wanted to say goodbye," he said, letting his hand slide from my bicep down to my wrist so he could steer me to face him.

"Goodbye," I replied, ignoring the fluttering in my stomach caused by him standing much too close.

"Goodbye," he echoed, his voice much softer than mine had been. Without warning or preamble, he leaned down and pressed his lips against mine. Despite myself, I automatically wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back. It certainly wasn't the first time we'd snogged, and hell, we'd done far more than snog just last night, but this was the first time he'd kissed me in public and I was more than aware people were staring at us. He had one arm around my waist, pulling me closer. The other was still on my wrist, even though my arms were wrapped around his neck. He let go of my wrist and brushed his calloused fingertips across my cheek and I noticed that he didn't seem to have any intention of stopping anytime soon.

"What are you doing?"

The jarring noise belonged to my twelve-year-old cousin, James. Teddy stopped kissing me long enough to give James a disapproving look.

"I'm seeing her off," Teddy replied. "Now piss off."

James glanced between us and then scampered off. Oh there's no way that'll end well.

"I have to go," I said, disentangling myself from Teddy's arms.

"But-" he protested.

"Teddy, I'm Head Girl, I can't just spend the entire term standing on the platform snogging you in public," I replied. I was a little mad at him for the PDA element.

"But-"

There was a heartfelt plea in his violet eyes that said he really didn't want me to go anywhere. This was exactly what I was afraid of.

"I'll see you later," I promised half-heartedly, and then I got on the train. He was still staring at me while the train pulled away from the station looking mournful. Then he disapparated with a crack and was gone.

**Review!**


	2. Welcome to the Jungle

**A/N: So hey there everyone! This is my first mutli-chap Teddy/Victoire story and Victoire doesn't even appear in the first chapter! This should go over well… So bear with me, this story is going to be slightly different from my normal stuff and is designed to be congruent with the Mischief Managed series. That is all. Well, and review, that too. **

Chapter One – Welcome to the Jungle

_"Welcome to the jungle, we've got fun and games" - Guns 'n' Roses_

"I just wanted to not make a fuss," I mumbled, staring straight out the windshield and feeling uncomfortable with my life.

"No, I understand," Harry said. "Which is naturally why you asked your least conspicuous relative to take you to the train station."

He was smirking at me with a knowing look in his green eyes. I grimaced apologetically and returned to staring out the window.

"Hogwarts is going to be the best thing you've ever done," he assured me. "Hogwarts was where all sorts of people found themselves home. People like-"

"Like you, and like the bloke who you named Albus after, and my dad," I interrupted. I'm normally good about not interrupting, since my gran would have me murdered for it, but sometimes – well, a lot of the time – the adults I know who fought in the war tend to repeat themselves.

"I've told you that already, haven't I?" Harry asked, ruffling my hair. I glanced in the mirror once he removed his hand and noticed that wherever he touched it, it had gone back to turquoise. As a result, half my head was teal and the other half was the brown I've adopted. I decided to try and be normal, at least when I first start Hogwarts. It didn't help that I could look like anything I want, so I figured I'd get my dad's brown hair that I've seen in pictures and my gran's grey eyes.

"Are you sure you don't want to keep it turquoise?" Harry asked while he parked the car outside King's Cross.

"I don't want to give anyone another reason to stare," I replied, jumping out of the car and digging through the boot for my trunk. Harry helped me pull it out and put it on a trolley and then we were off.

I was the first in the Potter-Weasley-Lupin family to attend Hogwarts. Even if you throw in the tangentially related Longbottom and Scamander families, I'm still the first. Our next representative won't be starting school for two years, when I'm already a third year. It means that for the first time in my life, I'm going to be alone.

Harry and I ran straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten and just before impact, the wall dissolved around us and we arrived on the platform that would take me to Hogwarts. We were entirely surrounded by steam and disembodied voices squealing excitedly and swapping stories about their summers and hugging their parents goodbye and cursing at their older siblings because they're leaving and the younger still has three years to wait.

Harry and I stared at the platform for a long moment before we started making our way through the steam and the crowd. Because of the thick white air, no one really noticed him and those who did just whispered to themselves. The parents involved who noticed us looked from Harry to me and back again, wondering how they missed the news that Ginny Potter was somehow pregnant during the Battle of Hogwarts. Because she would have had to be to give birth to me. Harry and I both knew that this was not the case so we ignored them.

We finally stopped next to an empty compartment and regarded each other.

"You're going to be fine," he assured me, even though I hadn't said anything.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

"I'm positive," he replied. "If your father could find himself a home at Hogwarts, then I'm one hundred percent sure you can."

I nodded slowly. "Did he really find _himself_ a home, or was it found for him?"

Harry opened his mouth and looked like he meant to reply but didn't know what to say. I grinned at him. When he saw me smiling, he laughed and hugged me.

"Just think," I said in my most cheerful tone of voice. "In only seven years, James'll be starting school."

"Don't say things like that," he replied, looking wounded. "You make me sound old."

"And guess what?" I added, starting to drag my trunk up the stairs onto the train.

"What?" he asked.

"You'll be thirty in July," I reminded him.

He cringed. "I'm glad you're going off to school," he said. "Keeps you from saying spiteful things to the people who love you."

"No it won't," I replied. "I'll just owl you lot."

He laughed and helped me carry my trunk into the empty compartment.

"I don't know where you got the vindictive streak," Harry informed me, helping me haul my trunk into the overhead bin.

"Gran," I replied easily. We spend most of our time being snarky to each other, but in the most affectionate way possible. Every so often, she tells me she's sorry she never got to know my father better because she's sure he was a wonderfully sweet man, unlike either of us.

Harry laughed and paused in the door of the compartment. There wasn't anything left for him to do in terms of helping me get ready to leave for school, so there was really no need for him to be there anymore, but both of us were hesitant to have him leave.

"What house do you suppose I'll be in?" I asked.

He shrugged. "You could be a Hufflepuff like your mother and grandfather," he said. "Or you could be a Slytherin like your grandmother, or a Gryffindor like your father. I think it's open, but I'm guessing you won't be in Slytherin."

"Thanks," I said. "You know that just to spite you I'm going to be in Ravenclaw, right?"

"Yeah, I know," he said, hugging me and ruffling my hair again. Somewhere a whistle blew. "I have to go."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I'll see you at Christmas?"

"Always," he promised, and then he ducked off the train and for the absolute first time in my life, I was alone.

I sat down in my empty compartment and looked around awkwardly with my hands pressed between my knees. Nervous energy dictated that my leg was shaking and I kept making strange popping noises with my mouth.

My solitary confinement did not last long.

Almost as soon as the train started moving, my door opened and a girl my age fell inside, flopped onto the empty bench and made herself at home.

She had giant chestnut brown hair and olive skin and her eyes were so light that for a moment I thought they were white. I realised after a moment that they were a strangely opaque colour most closely resembling coffee with cream in it.

"Hello," she said, lifting a hand in greeting. "I'm Rian."

"Teddy," I replied, wondering what she was doing in my compartment.

"Sorry, I ran afoul of some twitchy pretty girls who felt it their responsibility to tell me my hair is atrocious," she explained. "They started offering me a magical makeover, and I was very much done with them."

"Oh," I said, because I didn't know what else I was supposed to say.

"So when did you find out you were a wizard?" she asked.

"Eleven years ago?" I suggested. I can't actually remember the exact moment, mostly because I don't think there was an exact moment. I'm pretty sure I've always known exactly what I am.

"Nicely done," Rian complimented. "I've known for approximately a month."

"Oh," I said again, because I didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah, it's sort of funny," she said. "No one in my family was magical until my generation, and now my little brother, me, and our three year old cousin are all clearly magical."

"Your three year old cousin is clearly magical?" I asked.

"Why? Is that strange?" she replied.

"Well, not if you're from a Wizarding family," I explained. "My little brother is clearly magical and he's three, so it's not unheard of, but still. It's a little weird."

Rian shrugged. "I won't have to deal with it anyways, since I'll have finished school two years before he starts, but I think it's sort of funny. What's your brother's name?"

"Albus," I replied, wondering how soon I'd have to explain that Albus and James and Lily were not technically my siblings.

"Nice," Rian said. "Mine's called Adrian, or Twit depending on who you ask."

She grinned to herself and riffled through her bag for a small, bright green electronic device wrapped in white cords. She pushed on the device for a moment and then frowned.

"Does your iPod work?" she asked me.

"My what?" I replied.

She looked horrified and then glanced back at her device. "Oh no," she breathed. "Well, that's it then. I'll be going insane."

"What's an iPod?" I asked.

"It plays music," she replied. "Normal people music, not magical music."

"Muggle," I corrected.

"Sorry?" she asked.

"It's called Muggle, not normal people," I explained.

"Really? That seems sort of mean," she said. I shrugged, and then the compartment door slid open.

"Do you two mind if we sit here?" one of the two boys asked. They were both our age, and both had the same broken-looking nose and curly hair, but one was blond and had dark brown eyes while the other had dark brown hair and olive green eyes. Other than that, they might well have been identical.

"Go ahead," I said, and Rian stopped lying across the entire bench in order to let one of the boys sit next to her. The blond did, leaving his brother to sit next to me.

"I'm Rian," Rian said. "This is Teddy."

"We're called Tom and Logan," the blond said.

"You two sound funny," Rian informed them. I hadn't noticed. "Where are you from?"

"Well, our dad's Scottish," Logan said, and I realised they did actually sound funny. "But we've been living with our mum's family in Budapest since the last Wizarding War got started. Our parents sort of took one long look at what was going on here and left for the continent. Our dad insisted on sending us to Hogwarts though."

"Cool," Rian said. "What was the last Wizarding War?"

"Muggle born," I explained for Tom and Logan's benefit when they stared at Rian like she had grown an extra head, or perhaps, like she was a girl called Rian.

"Oh," Logan said as though it suddenly all made sense.

"The last Wizarding War was when a lovely chap by the name of Voldemort decided he really wanted to take over Wizarding Britain, so he stormed the countryside, let all his followers out of Azkaban – it's a maximum security prison – and wandered around killing people. They took over the Ministry and killed the Hogwarts Headmaster, and then this bloke called Harry Potter killed him and stopped the war," Tom summarised.

"That sounds unpleasant," Rian replied.

"Oh it was," I agreed. "My whole family fought in the war."

Tom and Logan winced sympathetically.

"My family never fought in a war," Rian said. She thought about it for a second. "Well, I say fought, my great grandparents didn't quite make it out of World War II…"

"World War II?" I asked. Tom and Logan looked just as confused as I was.

"Yeah, this lovely chap by the name of Hitler decided he really wanted to take over all of Europe and the rest of the world, so he took over the German government and stormed around the continent rounding up Jews, and the disabled, and the Roma, and the gays, and then he had them all murdered," Rian explained in much the same tone Tom had used to describe our second major war. "And then he finally realised he was going to lose because a combination of various groups called the Allies got Russia to agree to help crush Hitler's soul, and then he shot his wife in the head and covered himself in petrol and lit himself on fire."

The three of us boys stared at her in horror.

"I like history," she explained with a shrug.

"And people say we wizards are bad," Tom said, giving Rian a horrified look. "What is wrong with you Muggles?"

"A lot," Rian replied. "So what do you guys know about Hogwarts? Besides the fact it's got a hilarious name."

"Hogwarts is funny?" Logan asked, looking confused. "Our mum wanted to send us to _ș__coal__ă__ munte de dragon_."

"What even is that?" Rian asked.

"It translates to Mountain School of the Dragon, if you put it in English," Tom explained. "But we would've had to learn Romanian and spent the next seven years of our lives in the Carpathian Mountains and no thank you."

"My uncle Charlie works in the Carpathians," I said.

"Dear Jesus why?" Rian asked. Three of us stared at her. "Sorry, my gran on my mum's side is a Roma fortune teller, like actually, and she dragged my granddad off to the Carpathians a few years back and none of us have heard from them since."

"Are you sure your gran wasn't or isn't a witch?" I asked.

"The more I learn about the Wizarding world, the more inclined I am to believe that she is, yeah," Rian agreed. "But she certainly never told any of us if she is."

"What does your uncle do in the Carpathians?" Logan asked.

"He's a dragon tamer or wrangler or something," I replied. "We only ever see him at Christmas but that's always sort of a big 'if.'"

"That's horrifying," Logan replied.

"Dragons are real?" Rian asked, looking deeply enthusiastic about the idea. "That's one of my favourite things I've heard since I got my wand. So what should I know about Hogwarts before we turn up and I'm expected to wrestle a troll?"

"They don't let trolls into the castle," I assured her. Then I thought about it. "Well, no, there was one once when my dad was a first year, but he took care of it with the help of my uncle and aunt."

I realised as I said it that if Logan or Tom had read Harry's biography any time in the recent past, they would know exactly who I considered my father to be. I winced and waited, but neither of them said anything about it.

"There are four houses," Tom explained. "Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin."

"Gryffindor is where you go if you've got more balls than brains," Logan explained.

"Hufflepuff is for the genuinely nice," I said.

"Ravenclaw is where you go if you've got more brains than balls," Tom countered from Logan's earlier explanation of Gryffindor.

"And Slytherin is where they stick the people who don't believe in equality," Logan finished. "Most of the people who messed everything up in the war were in Slytherin."

"My dad says we should forgive the Slytherins a bit," I said. "Not all of them are evil. And there was a right evil git who managed to get into Gryffindor, so…"

"How do you get into each house?" Rian asked, looking concerned.

The three of us shrugged.

"Dunno," Logan replied. "My dad was sort of mum on the subject."

"Unlike Mum, who was very angry about the subject and kicked him out of the house," Tom muttered.

Rian and I winced in unison.

Before we could delve into the awkward question of whether or not Tom and Logan's mum had let their dad back into the house at any point, the witch with a trolley full of sugary goods came by.

"Anything dears?" she asked, glancing around at all of us. She paused at Logan and Tom. "Well your father was certainly Hamish McEwan."

"Yes marm," they agreed.

"Do you boys prefer chocolate frogs as well?" she asked.

"Yes please," they chorused, looking enthusiastic and offering her some of their gold in exchange for a pile of chocolate frogs. Rian looked confused.

"And for you dear?" the witch asked, smiling kindly at me. "Well, you'll be from the Black family, won't you? Which one are you?"

"Erm…Teddy," I said uncertainly. "Can I get a box of Bertie Bott's and a liquorice wand, and some Droobles, and some chocolate frogs, and a few cauldron cakes?"

"Easy mate," Logan said.

"Stocking up until my family can send some along," I explained, accepting my purchases. At this suggestion, Tom and Logan clamoured to buy her out in her chocolate frog stock.

"And for you, love?" the witch asked Rian, who still looked very confused.

"Erm…I don't suppose you've got any Mars bars?" Rian asked.

"What's a Mars bar?" Logan asked. When I shrugged as well, he seemed to realise it was a Muggle sweet, rather than just an English one.

"Any chocolate at all besides…frogs?" Rian tried again, giving the blue and gold chocolate frog boxes a suspicious look.

"Trust me, you want the chocolate frogs," Tom said.

"Erm…sure then, I suppose," Rian agreed after a moment, handing the witch what looked like the tail end of her money bag. Logan and Tom looked away awkwardly and Rian rolled her eyes. "I'm not poor. I just don't have any other Wizarding money."

They both relaxed visibly and the trolley witch continued on.

Rian opened one of her chocolate frogs and before it could hop too far away, she grabbed it reflexively and bit it's head off.

"So you'll play Seeker then," Tom decided.

"For what?" Rian asked.

All three of us boys stared at her in horror again while she pulled her chocolate frog card out of the box.

"Harry Potter," she read. "Didn't you say he was the bloke who defeated Voldemort?"

"Yeah," Logan agreed. He turned to his own frog for a moment, but then lifted his head like he'd realised something. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "He also fought a troll when he was eleven."

I stared down at my own frog – Ron Weasley – and tried to pretend I didn't know what Logan was thinking.

"Isn't he only twenty-nine?" Logan asked me.

"Who?" I asked, figuring it would be easier if I played dumb.

"I got Albus Dumbledore," Tom announced, looking annoyed. "I've got thirty of him back home."

Rian peered from Tom's chocolate frog card and then back to me. "Didn't you say your little brother's name is Albus?"

Because I was a metamorphmagus, I managed not to blush.

"I did," I agreed quietly, closing the box on my Uncle Ron's face and setting it on the table.

"So you've got a little brother named Albus and your dad fought a troll when he was a first year," Logan summarised. "Your dad is Harry Potter."

"No he's not," I replied automatically, remembering that it was half-true anyways. Harry might not have given birth to me, or been responsible for my conception, but he was certainly the only father I had and was more than amenable to the fact I called him Dad.

"Fine then, Teddy, what's your full name?" Logan asked.

"Teddy Remus Lupin," I replied in my most annoyed voice.

"Oh," Logan said, deflating slightly. I almost felt like explaining, but then remembered I didn't want people to stare at me because of the fact my biological parents were dead war heroes, or the fact my parents were living war heroes. If people were going to stare at me, it was going to be on my terms.

"So what's a Seeker?" Rian asked after Logan had settled down.

We spent the rest of the ride to Hogwarts explaining Quidditch to her and she seemed deeply excited by the idea. Almost as excited as she had been about the dragons.

When we arrived at Hogsmead Station, we had all changed into our robes and realised that none of us had pets. Tom and Logan said they did have pets back in Budapest, but they hadn't got to bring them because of international quarantine laws and Rian informed us that the school frowned on having dogs as familiars.

We headed down the pathway to the lake and immediately jumped in the same boat. Hagrid had passed on the job of ferryman to the caretaker – a terrifyingly thin man who introduced himself as Casper – and so there were no familiar faces to greet me on my way to the school. I figured this was for the best and that most of the other war kids would appreciate it as well since there were so few of us. Most of the kids in my year were bound to be in Tom and Logan's situation, where they hadn't been in the country during the war, or in Rian's. British Wizarding families didn't have a lot of kids between '95 and '98.

As the boat crossed the lake, we rounded a bend in the shore and suddenly, Hogwarts castle came into view. All four of us gasped in shock and awe.

We were still shocked and awed as we walked up the steps to the front door where we were greeted by the first person I knew. Thankfully, Uncle Neville gave no indication that he knew me.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," he said with a comforting smile. The comforting aspect of it was marred slightly by the scar that ran across half his forehead and through his eyebrow.

"What happened to his face?" Rian whispered.

"The war," I whispered back.

Rian nodded slowly.

"In a few minutes, you will all pass through the doors where you will try on the Sorting Hat and be grouped with your house," Neville continued. "While you're here, your house will be like your family. However, recent adjustments to the school's activities calendar have led to specific events designed to promote interhouse unity. It simply won't do to have the lot of you splitting off into factions as soon as you can."

He smiled to show that it wasn't as ominous as he made it sound. Before he could say anything else, the door to the Great Hall creaked open.

"If you would all follow me," he said, leading us towards the hall. The table on the right was yellow, on the left it was blue. My mother had been a Hufflepuff. So had my grandfather. My gran was fond of telling me how her family had disowned her, a Slytherin, for falling in love with my grandfather. She said it was the third proudest moment of her life, the first being my mother's birth, the second being my birth.

"Our dad was in Ravenclaw," Logan muttered, more to himself than to any of us. "So we should be in Ravenclaw, too, right?"

"Not necessarily," I replied. "You've got to be both creative and imaginative and intelligent to be a Ravenclaw."

"So you won't be going there with that sort of grammar, will you?" Rian mumbled. The three of us stared at her. "Sorry, I took all the entrance exams to go to the local grammar school, but then this happened."

"You're a geek, aren't you?" Tom guessed. Rian nodded in agreement, seeming not the least offended, nor terrified by the prospect of being sorted permanently into a house.

"Well this should be fun," I said quietly while all the older students stared at the lot of us. Without warning, they fell quiet and the battered old hat burst into song. It was slightly singed looking and sang about putting aside differences and the fact it really hated having to break us up into groups but it really was the most convenient so that no one would murder their roommates.

"When I call your name, you will come up, put the hat on your head, and then you'll join your house," Neville explained. "Alright then. Adams, Lee."

Lee Adams was sorted into Gryffindor to much applause from the table on the far right.

Adelaide Anders was in Gryffindor, Christopher Anderson was in Hufflepuff, Scarlet Atwater was in Ravenclaw, Ethan Boot was in Ravenclaw, Bethany Bott was a Hufflepuff, Clarice Bryn was in Slytherin.

"Calloway, Marian," Neville called.

To our collective surprise, Rian winced and walked towards the Hat.

"Marian?" Logan, Tom, and I repeated.

"No wonder she goes by Rian," I said. "I hate my full name."

"Don't worry, so do we," Logan assured me.

"You hate my full name?" I replied.

"Our own full names," Logan elaborated.

"Would you two shut it? We're going to miss Marian's sorting," Tom interjected, flicking us both in the arm, and then snickering at Rian's name.

Rian was still on the stool looking awkward while the Hat considered where to put her. She was the first person I'd seen who didn't look nervous, which I think was the Hat's ultimate deciding point.

"Gryffindor!" it yelled.

Rian nodded in acceptance and made her way over to the Gryffindor table while her housemates cheered her on.

"McEwan, right?" I muttered to Tom and Logan. They nodded. "So we've got a while."

As though to spite me, the sorting blasted through the rest of the Cs, the Ds, the Es, the one F, G, and H, the Is, Js, and Ks and then the Ls were up.

Ledbetter, Kellan was a Ravenclaw. Long, Kelly was a Slytherin.

"Lupin, Edward!" Neville called.

"Edward?" Tom and Logan chorused.

"Shut up," I replied, using my metamorphmagus abilities to supress my blush while simultaneously vowing I would never again answer to my full first name. Some of the older girls had started tittering at the name and I didn't really want to know why.

I sat on the stool and dropped the Hat onto my head.

"Well," a small voice said in my ear. "What have we here? Long family tradition of being in Slytherin I see. Certainly the sharp tongue necessary to do well there, and the cunning. But, no…Loyalty, without question. To a fault, even. Deeply caring for those you love, but no, not Hufflepuff either…brave, certainly, and bold, yes. You could be a Gryffindor like your father – both fathers – but…hmm…"

The Hat fell silent for a long moment. And then it yelled, "Ravenclaw!"

I blinked in surprise and pulled the Hat off before I sat down at the Ravenclaw table. Neville and Hagrid and Professor McGonagall were all staring at me curiously, as was everyone else who had recognised my last name. I sank lower into my seat and accepted the congratulations of my new housemates.

Martin, Elizabeth was sorted into Hufflepuff. McAvery, Ian joined the Slytherins.

"McEwan, Gabriel!" Neville announced. I frowned, swapped a look with Rian across the room, and turned to watch Tom walk shamefully up to the stool.

It took approximately three seconds for the Hat to declare him a Gryffindor and he bounded over to sit next to Rian.

"McEwan, Levente," Neville called, stumbling over the first name with a slightly confused look.

"Logan," Logan corrected quietly as he put the hat on. I could only hear him because I was sitting so close to the stool.

"Slytherin!" the hat announced.

Like I had, Logan blinked in shock for a moment and then made his way over to the Slytherin table, taking his seat next to Ian McAvery. I noticed him and Tom make joint confused expressions at each other across the Hall, while everyone else tried to be more discrete about their confusion. It wasn't often that twins were in different houses, let alone one in Slytherin and the other in Gryffindor.

The sorting continued, but since we had a smaller year than most, it wasn't long before Richardsen, Chloe was sorted into Gryffindor, Thompson, Celestia was sorted into Ravenclaw, and Wood, Evan was sorted into Gryffindor.

Professor McGonagall stood up to address a few opening remarks to the lot of us and then bid us to eat. When the food magically appeared on the plates, my fellow first year Ravenclaws looked shocked.

"It's just house elves," Celestia Thompson explained at the confused looks on Ethan Boot, Scarlet Atwater, and Kellan Ledbetter's faces.

"What on earth is a house elf?" Scarlet asked.

"Muggleborn?" I guessed.

"I believe so," she said.

"They're right useful little creatures," Celestia explained. "They do all the cooking and cleaning."

"They're slaves," Kellan translated.

"You sound like my aunt," I replied. "She spent five years trying to get them proper rights, but it makes them so twitchy when you even suggest paying them that she had to give up."

"Who's your aunt?" Celestia asked curiously.

"Why?" I replied.

"My dad works in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures," she explained. "I was just curious if they would know each other."

"Probably," I replied. "She works for Magical Law Enforcement now, though. Just like half my family."

"What does your family do there?" Celestia asked.

"They're all aurors, mostly," I replied.

"What's an auror?" Ethan asked.

"They're like Muggle police," a second year said from nearby.

"Fun," Ethan said. "And here my family are all accountants."

The five of us politely swapped stories about our families – I stayed as vague as possible – and then we were done with the feast and were being ushered to the doors by our prefects.

I got caught in the doorjamb between Logan, Tom, and Rian. The four of us grinned at each other.

"So Marian," I started.

"Yes Edward?" she replied.

"You two are funny," Tom piped up.

"Oh, are we Gabriel?" Logan replied.

"Don't even start with me, Levente," Tom said.

"So where did you get Tom and Logan?" I asked while we made our way slowly out of the Great Hall so we could talk as long as possible before being shepherded off to our separate houses.

"Middle names," Logan explained. "We have no use for our first names, which I should expect the two of you to understand."

"Both Gabriel and Levente are better than Marian," Rian replied. "But yes, I understand."

"Oi! You lot!" a Gryffindor prefect called down to us. "Budge along then!"

"See you all at breakfast," I promised, running off after the Ravenclaw prefects. Tom and Rian ran to catch up with their prefect while Logan groaned and followed the Slytherins down to the dungeons.

As the prefect let us into the spacious blue common room and showed Ethan, Kellan and me to our dormitory, I heard my Uncle Ron's voice echo through my head.

_When you've got a trio, one person's always the asshole,_ he reminded me, even though he was a few hundred miles away in London. _Usually, it was me._

I steeled myself against the probably truth of his words and followed my two dormmates into our new room. Well then. Here goes nothing.

**Review!**


	3. Time Goes On

**A/N: Alright. So chapter two, which concludes first year. So, this story is going to have a lot of references to Muggle things (such as Philip Pullman and Doctor Who later in this chapter) because Teddy is four years younger than me in real people time (not in the current confines of the story) so I actually have the Muggle knowledge of what was going on then and it's going to end up integrated into the story. I hope you can all deal with that. :) **

**Thanks Prunella7 for reviewing! **

Chapter Two – Time Goes On

"_Time still goes on, a new day will dawn and die beneath the sun, for lifetimes to come – and time goes on"_ – Story of the Year

"And then he just came out of nowhere and swooped in and BAM he caught the snitch!" Rian exclaimed, apparently unconcerned that she was rambling incoherently. "I'm so going to play Seeker as soon as he finishes school."

"Told you," Tom said, drawing his Gryffindor scarf closer around his face. We were sitting in the courtyard at break listening to Rian recount the Gryffindor-Slytherin opening game.

One of the biggest changes the school had made in the service of interhouse unity was making it so we could sit wherever we wanted at normal meals. For special occasions, we were to sit at our actual house tables, but the rest of the time it was a free for all. Rian and Tom had accepted the burden of moving over one to the Hufflepuff table for most meals, and Logan and I joined them.

"And the Keeper!" Rian continued. "He was completely useless the whole game. It's a good thing he's a seventh year or we'd really stand no chance to beat anyone while we're still in Hogwarts. He's almost as bad as the Cannon's Keeper, I mean _honestly_!"

"Never guess this one was Muggleborn," Logan commented, prodding at his potions homework. "Way she talks about Quidditch like it's the meaning of life."

"How do you know it isn't, McEwan?" Rian demanded, tossing her hair and hitting him in the face.

I snickered and went back to scribbling out my Charms essay.

Logan glowered at her and she drummed out an ecstatic beat on his arm. He flinched away from her.

"And we're playing Ravenclaw next and we're going to crush you, Teddy, you and all your eagles," Rian announced with certainty.

"I don't even play Quidditch," I replied.

"Well, I mean, you're not on the team, but we're first years," she said. "The last time a first year was on the team it was Harry Potter, so that's sort of to be expected."

Even though it was November, I had managed to keep my family a secret from my friends. My dormmates were suspicious because Harry's snowy owls were sort of a dead giveaway, but they hadn't said anything. True to my predictions, I was certainly the asshole of our dormitory. Not because I did anything wrong by them, but because Ethan and Kellan had decided they were best friends and I could piss off since I had friends in other houses. As far as I knew, Logan wasn't faring much better in Slytherin. He had decided that the only reason he had been sorted in in the first place was because he'd badmouthed the house while we were on the train and the Sorting Hat was a fan of bitter irony.

"Are you lot excited for Christmas?" Rian asked. "I can't wait to tell my little brother everything about Hogwarts. He's going to be so excited."

"He's magical, right?" Logan asked, sounding concerned.

"Yeah, but I'd tell him if he wasn't too," Rian replied with a shrug.

"You can't do that," Logan said. "There's an International Statute of Secrecy."

"Oh," Rian said. "Good to know. Thanks!"

She smiled brightly at him and he looked confused.

"We should probably go to class," Tom pointed out grudgingly.

"Isn't that what Nerdboy is supposed to say?" Logan asked innocently. I slapped him in the arm.

"I'm not a nerd," I replied. "I'm just smarter than you."

"You're a nerd," Logan informed me. I glared at him the whole way to Transfiguration. Due to the fact there were thirty people in our entire year, we didn't have separate sections for our classes. This was convenient for the four of us but we seemed to be the only ones who actually liked the arrangement. The week leading up to the Gryffindor-Slytherin game, a few boys from Tom's dorm – specifically Lee Adams – and a few boys from Logan's dorm – specifically Ian McAvery – got into a bad fistfight in the middle of Herbology and Neville had to give them both detention.

"It's because they're gits," Evan Wood had decided before joining into the fight.

The rest of the term was uneventful since there wasn't Quidditch for the lot of us to get worked up over. Before we knew it, it was time to get back on the train to go home for Christmas. In a momentary lapse of judgment, I had asked Harry to come pick me up from the train station. Logan hadn't let his suspicions drop over the past few months, even as we'd become quite good friends. Tom and Rian got along famously since they were both in Gryffindor, leaving Logan and me to fend for ourselves.

As the train pulled up to King's Cross station, Logan almost slammed his face against the window in excitement.

"It's Harry Potter!" he insisted, pointing at the man standing by himself on the platform doing his utmost to seem inconspicuous.

"Is it?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"That's what he looks like?" Rian asked, staring at him as well. "Huh. I always figured he'd be taller."

"He's not _that_ short," I mumbled, pulling my bag out of the overhead bin.

"You're keeping secrets from us, aren't you, Lupin?" Logan accused.

"Yes," I agreed. The three of them stared at me expectantly and I sighed before I turned my hair turquoise.

"Holy Merlin!" Tom exclaimed, jumping sideways on the seat while the train slowed to a stop. "You're a metamorphmagus?"

"Why would you go out looking like you do if you're a metamorphmagus?" Logan demanded.

"How do I look exactly?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at him.

"You know, boring and normal," he summarised.

"What's a metamorphmagus?" Rian asked.

"I can change my appearance at will," I explained. "I'll see you all after the holidays."

I ran out of the train before they could demand to know any of my other secrets and ran past Harry at full speed, sure he would start following me. He did, and I didn't stop running until we were off the platform. I stopped next to the door and bent double with my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked, looking slightly amused.

"Yeah," I panted. "I just – I haven't told any of my friends that you're sort of my dad so I figured I'd bugger off before they made the connection."

"Ashamed of me are you?" he asked, grabbing my bag and slinging it over his shoulder easily.

"No," I replied, straightening up and unbuttoning my winter coat before I melted. "I just figure if they're going to stare at me, I'd rather they stare at me for something I've done than for who my family is."

Harry nodded. "Try turning up for your first day of school only to discover belatedly that you happen to be famous," he said, tossing my bag in the boot of the car and unlocking the door with a beep. I slid into the front seat and unknotted my Ravenclaw scarf while he started the car.

"So tell me about these friends who don't know I'm your dad," he requested.

"Well, there's Logan," I started. I had told him in letters, of course, but nothing too specific. "He's in Slytherin and his name's actually Levente or something because his mum's Hungarian and he grew up in Budapest, but now I'm pretty sure his parents are getting divorced and so they're staying in London with their dad. And then there's Tom, Logan's twin, who's actually named Gabriel but he hates his first name and – well, they both do – so they go by their middle names. Tom's a Gryffindor, but no one's quite sure how they ended up in the two most different houses. And then there's Rian, who's in Gryffindor and also a colossal geek and a Muggleborn."

"Neville says you lot tend to keep your noses clean," Harry replied. "And he says that Rian and Tom are both good kids, since they're in his house."

"They are," I promised. "But Logan and Rian bicker like Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione."

Harry frowned in confusion while we drove out of central London towards Godric's Hollow.

"Erm, maybe I should mention, Rian is short for Marian," I added.

"Ah," Dad replied, looking enlightened. "Then that makes slightly more sense."

"I thought it might," I agreed.

"So you really did end up in Ravenclaw just to spite me, didn't you?" he asked with a laugh.

"Couldn't help myself," I replied with a shrug. "Who's all at the house?"

"Your grandmother, Ginny, and the kids," he said. "We're not heading for the Burrow until Christmas Eve and we're staying there until Boxing Day. And your grandmother wanted me to ask you if you wanted to stay at our house until we head for the Burrow."

"Sounds good," I agreed, fiddling with the radio.

"What are you doing?" he asked curiously.

"Looking for a Muggle station," I replied, finally finding one.

"Why?" he asked.

"Rian won't shut up about music," I explained. "When she's not gushing about Quidditch. So I figured I should find out what she was talking about."

"Ah," Harry replied.

We drove in silence the rest of the way to Godric's Hollow, and by the time we got there it was dark out. Almost immediately, we were swarmed by James who had recently turned five, Albus who had recently turned four, Ginny, and my gran who was carrying one year old Lily.

"Welcome home!" Ginny exclaimed, hugging me tightly before James and Al could start demanding to know everything about Hogwarts that I could possibly tell them. I was halfway through a story about the Gryffindor-Slytherin game before I remembered to hug my grandmother.

"Nice to know you forget about me so easily, dear," she said haughtily when I kissed her on the cheek.

"Only when you stand in the dark and let it consume your Black heart," I replied.

"Glad to see no one's offered you manners in exchange for your personality then," she said. We regarded each other for a moment and then I hugged her tightly.

"I missed you too," I said as she patted my cheek and brushed my hair off my forehead.

"I don't think I'll ever understand how insults count as terms of endearment for the two of you," Dad said, shaking his head slowly.

"They don't have our sort of family," Ginny said. "Get the boys, tea's almost ready."

Harry scooped up James and Al and ran into the house after her while Gran wrapped her arm around my shoulders and I wrapped mine around her waist. She was still taller than me, but I had a sense it wouldn't stay that way for long.

"Does this mean you're going to have friends over this summer?" Gran asked while we followed the Potters into the house.

"If it's alright," I said. "And if it's alright with them."

"Of course it's alright," Gran replied. "Merlin knows our house is painfully empty."

"Painfully," I agreed. "Maybe we should get a dog."

"A dog?" she repeated, looking slightly disgusted. "How about a cat?"

"Then you can be a crazy old cat lady!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"With my precious grandson to take care of me and clean out the litter box," she replied. I grimaced and accepted the plate of food Ginny offered me.

"Okay, fine, maybe not," I said, sitting down at the table and dodging the peas Lily threw at me.

After dinner, Gran went home and left me in the care of the Potters. I crawled into the bed in the spare room that was essentially mine anyways and Ginny kissed me on the forehead before she left the room and turned out the lights.

Christmas Eve turned up much too quickly and before I knew it, we were off to the Burrow. Containing everyone in the Burrow was a bit of a struggle, and as the oldest kid, I was expected to happily sleep in the den along with Uncle Charlie and his utter lack of personal family, since Charlie was expected to give up his room to my gran.

"How're the dragons?" I asked as everyone else filed off to their rooms. The adults were expected to keep their children with them at all times, which meant unfortunate people like Harry and Ginny and Bill and Fleur had three kids in their room. Thankfully, it was only for two nights.

"They're excellent," Charlie replied. "One of our Norwegian Ridgebacks laid a clutch last week so they're expected to hatch in a month and that'll be exciting. I'll send pictures."

"Cool," I said. "My friend Rian will really like that."

"Does Rian like dragons?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah," I said. "She's Muggleborn and so far I think Quidditch and dragons are her favourite things about being magical."

"Nice," Charlie replied. "She'd probably like my dragon tattoo."

"You've got a dragon tattoo?" I asked.

"Don't tell your parents – or mine for that matter – that I told you this, but a few weeks ago the guys and I went out and got a little bit drunk and ran across a gypsy caravan and they slapped it on me," Charlie explained.

"A gypsy caravan in the Carpathians," I said slowly. "They didn't have a fortune teller, did they?"

"Yeah," Charlie agreed. "Why?"

"Whose last name was Calloway?" I asked.

"Reinhardt," Charlie corrected. "Because, you know, German/Gypsy fortune tellers are an actual thing these days."

"Weird," I replied. "Well, goodnight Uncle Charlie. Happy Christmas."

"You too, Teddy," he said, extinguishing the lights with a flick of his wand.

I woke up in the morning with a start when someone snuck into the den and accidentally sat on the presents at the foot of my sofa.

"Whoops, sorry," she said, standing up quickly and backing away slowly.

"'s fine," I mumbled, rubbing my eye and sitting up. "Is it morning already?"

"Yeah," she agreed. It was still dark, so I couldn't tell who it was.

"Cool," I said, feeling around at the foot of the sofa for the package sure to contain my Weasley jumper. I found it without much struggle and pulled it on.

"You've got that on backwards," the Weasley girl informed me.

"You can see in the dark?" I grumbled. "Sorry, who are you?"

"Victoire," she replied. "And can't you see in the dark?"

I struggled to get my sweater on properly and blinked to try and get my eyes to adjust to the dark. Very slowly, the short nine year old girl came into focus. I knew her hair was blonde tinged with pink and her eyes were blue and her nose was splattered with freckles, but I couldn't actually see that at the moment.

"What are you doing down here?" I asked, pulling my sleeping back up towards me so there would be a place for her to sit.

"I was going to come down here and read, but I forgot that you and Uncle Charlie were down here," she explained.

"What are you reading?" I asked.

"It's called _The Subtle Knife_," she replied. "It's the second in a series."

"Cool," I said, trying not to fall back asleep. "What time is it?"

"Seven thirty," she replied. "Gran will be up soon."

"Why are you up at seven thirty?" I demanded, wondering what could possibly be wrong with her. As the eldest children in the family, we were often tossed together as children, but especially now that I was at Hogwarts, we weren't exactly friends.

"Woke up because Louis was snoring and I couldn't fall back to sleep," she replied.

"So you had to come wake me up as well?" I asked, snuggling back into my pillow with my knees drawn up to my chest so I didn't accidentally kick her.

"I forgot you were down here," she replied. "And I didn't mean to sit on your presents."

"It's fine," I mumbled. Unfortunately, I also couldn't fall back to sleep once I was awake. It was a problem made worse by the fact my dormmates both found it necessary to snore and talk in their sleep.

"I thought you were going to be in Hufflepuff," she said after a moment.

"Really?" I asked, giving up on sleeping and sitting up fully with my pillow in my lap. Dawn was starting to creep in past the Christmas tree and it was slightly easier to see Charlie sprawled on the other sofa with his arm across his eyes and Victoire sitting in a ball next to me.

"Yeah," she said. "You're always so nice that I figured it was a given."

"I'm nice?" I repeated, giving her a bewildered look.

She shrugged. "I figured it was either going to be Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. I'm going to be in Ravenclaw."

I glanced at the rather thick book in her hands and the way she was squinting at the page as close as possible.

"Yeah, probably," I agreed.

At that moment, I heard Gran Weasley start making noise in the kitchen and Victoire and I jumped off the couch to go help. Gran Weasley is one of my favourite people on the planet.

"Happy Christmas dears," she said when she saw the two of us. I noticed Victoire was wearing her Weasley jumper as well, but she was still squinting even though it was light in the kitchen.

"Do you need glasses?" I asked her. She ignored me and hugged Gran Weasley.

"Happy Christmas!" she exclaimed before she stepped back to read her book at the kitchen table.

"Happy Christmas," I said, hugging Gran Weasley as well. Unlike Gran Tonks, I was taller than Gran Weasley. "Can I help with anything?"

"Not yet, dear," she replied, turning on the oven with a flick of her wand. "You can go back to talking to Victoire."

I deflated slightly and sat down at the kitchen table. Even in the light, she had her face as close to the book as possible.

"Are you sure you don't need glasses?" I asked.

She stuck her tongue out at me and went back to reading.

"So what's your book about?" I asked, folding my arms on the table and resting my chin on the sleeves of my sweater. I noticed for the first time that it was Ravenclaw blue with bronze trim and changed my hair to match.

"It takes place in a different universe where everyone has these creatures called daemons who are essentially their familiars, even though no one ever calls them familiars, but their daemons are their souls essentially, and they can shapeshift into whatever creature they want until you grow up," Victoire explained. "And the main character, Lyra Belacqua, can figure out the truth with this compass called an alethiometer – which comes from the Ancient Greek for truth by the way – that lets her know what's actually going on, and now in the second book she's made friends with a murderer named Will who has the Subtle Knife which lets him cut open windows into other universes and-"

"Your parents are letting you read this?" Gran Weasley demanded, sounding scandalised. "I should have a word with my son…"

"Gran, when Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur were young, they were fighting a war," I pointed out. "At least whatever's going on in Vicky's book is fictional."

"Don't call me that," Victoire demanded, giving me a dark stare.

"Well what else should I call you?" I asked with mild exasperation.

"Victoire," she replied. "And I'm going to have a pet fox named Pantalaimon."

"I'm not even going to ask," I said.

"That's what Lyra's daemon is called," Victoire explained. I grumbled to myself and let my face fall onto my arms so I could try to go back to sleep.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"So how was Christmas?" Rian asked when we met up on the train back to Hogwarts.

"Awesome," I replied, biting the head off a chocolate frog and propping my feet on the bench next to me. Rian mirrored me and the train lurched forwards. "Yours?"

"Great, except that my three year old cousin kept asking me to repeat everything about Hogwarts," she replied. "Adrian just took it once and was done with it, but Dylan wouldn't shut up. I think it's because he's three, though."

"Oh yeah," I said. "What's your gran's name? The one who's a gypsy fortune teller?"

"Juliana Reinhardt, why?" Rian asked.

"She's a witch," I replied. "My Uncle Charlie had a run in with her caravan a while back and they slapped a tattoo on him."

Rian nodded. "Doesn't surprise me at all," she said. "I wonder where Levente and Gabriel are."

"Don't call us that," Logan begged while they stumbled into the compartment and collapsed onto the benches.

"Speak of the devil," Rian replied.

"Were you almost late?" I asked them while they fell against the back of the benches looking exhausted.

"It's what happens when your Portkey is delayed and you get stranded in the middle of Prague for four hours because the Czech Ministry officials decided that 2010 was a great year to start a war on organisation," Tom explained with a groan.

"Made better by the fact we were only back home so we could collect the last of our things and ship them back to London since our parents decided to officially call it quits," Logan added. "And we're to stay with our dad."

Rian and I looked awkward. As far as I knew, her parents weren't divorced either.

"Could be worse," Tom piped up. "They could both be dead."

"Hey, then they'd be like my parents!" I exclaimed before I could stop myself. I realised what I'd said and pressed my lips together to try and take it back while my hair turned green in embarrassment.

"Did you seriously go a whole term without telling anyone you could shapeshift?" Rian asked, staring at my hair.

"Sorry," I replied before I went back to keeping my mouth shut.

"Alright, secret time with Teddy Lupin," Logan prompted. "Spill. You talk about your parents all the time."

I sighed and decided I might as well get it over with. After all, Logan, Tom, and Rian could be trusted with secrets.

"My biological parents died in the war," I explained. "Battle of Hogwarts. I was only three weeks old or something."

"So who are the parents you talk about?" Tom asked.

I winced and stared at the Hermione Granger chocolate frog card that was taunting me from my lap.

"Ginny and Harry Potter," I admitted.

"I knew it!" Logan exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, you're very clever," I grumbled.

"How does that even work?" Tom asked, looking confused.

"They're my godparents technically," I explained. "I mean, I really live with my grandmother, but I spend a good chunk of time at the Potters' house."

"You call Harry Potter – _the_ Harry Potter – Dad," Logan said.

"Yeah," I agreed. "And if I could swear the three of you to secrecy, that would be great."

"Of course," Rian said instantly. "Because why on earth would you want to be ungodly popular immediately?"

"Exactly," I replied. "I'm going to be famous, it just won't be because of my family."

"You seem awfully confident about that," Tom said.

"Yeah," I agreed with a smile.

"What are you going to be famous for?" Logan asked. "I'd like to know so I can be in on it."

"Of course," I said. "And I haven't figured it out yet. But when I do, we'll all be famous together."

"Sounds like a plan," Tom replied.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"And so we'll have to all see each other this summer," Rian decided as we were on the train back to King's Cross in time for the summer to start.

"We will," I agreed.

"Yeah, it's not like any of us exactly have other friends," Tom said. "I know Chloe Richardsen hates my guts at least, so I doubt we'll be making many friends in our house."

"She only hates your guts because you called her fat," Rian replied. "And she isn't. All of her clothes are just a few sizes too big."

"Why do you know that?" Logan asked in a pained tone.

"Because we share a dormitory," Rian pointed out. "Alright, where do you lot live so I can call you?"

"Call?" I asked.

"You know, on the phone," she replied.

"Like with the Floo?" Logan asked.

"You'd swear you lot were all pureblood," Rian said with an eye-roll.

Tom and Logan looked awkward.

"Really?" I asked.

"Why do you think our family left when the war started? They didn't agree with Moldemort, and they didn't want to get pegged as Death-Eater Sympathisers just because they happened to be pureblood," Logan replied.

"Well, they could've stayed and fought," I pointed out. "Like the pureblood half of my family."

"The Weasleys, right?" Tom asked. "Yeah, they're pretty legendary in our dormitory."

"Our parents wanted nothing to do with being war heroes," Logan said. "Sorry."

I shrugged. It didn't really matter to me. I hadn't had opportunity to try and figure out if I would've stayed and fought like my parents, and I didn't really want to know.

"So there's a film I want to go see," Rian said, dragging the conversation away from the morbid and depressing.

"Film," Tom repeated blankly.

"You'll like it," Rian assured him. "But it's a sequel, so you'll all have to come over and watch the first one and then we can go see it in the cinema."

"Are you sure about that?" Logan asked, looking awkward. "Where do you live?"

"It's called Quedgeley," Rian replied.

"You're serious?" Tom asked, looking like he might laugh. Rian didn't. "You're serious."

"Well where do you live?" Rian asked.

"Chiswick," Logan supplied.

"Don't tell my brother that," Rian suggested.

"Why not?" Tom asked.

"He's a rather massive Doctor Who fan," Rian explained. Or, at least, tried to explain. When the three of us just gave her blank stares she sighed in despair. "Well, fine then. This summer, I'm going to educate the lot of you in Muggle pop culture. You can all come over for a few weeks and we'll do nothing but laze about watching telly."

"Sounds like a plan," I agreed. "And then you can all come round my place and we'll play Quidditch."

"Yes," Tom and Logan agreed in perfect, deadly serious unison.

It was decided and we went our separate ways at the platform with promises to write and form our plans more concretely. Tom and Logan lurked about like they were hoping Harry was going to turn up, and when he did they both went pale and stared at him like they were seeing a ghost.

"Holy shit," Logan mumbled before he clapped his hand over his mouth and tried to take it back.

"Nice to meet you," Harry replied, looking amused. "Are you Tom or Logan?"

"Logan's the dark one," Rian explained. "With the foul mouth. Tom's the blond."

"So you'll be Rian then," Harry said, shaking her hand.

"Yes sir," Rian agreed. "Do you mind if I steal Teddy away for a few weeks this summer to educate him on Muggle pop culture?"

"Go right ahead," Harry said. "What sort of pop culture?"

"I haven't quite decided, but I think I'm at least going to introduce them to Doctor Who," Rian replied.

Harry frowned like he was trying to remember something. "That's still on?"

"Well, it's on again, really," Rian said. "Why?"

"Nothing, I just remember my aunt and uncle declaring it was a load of tosh back when I was growing up," Harry explained.

"It's not," Rian assured him. "It's brilliant."

"Good to know," Harry said. "Well, Teddy, are you ready to go, or should I just meet you in the car?"

"I'll be out in a moment," I promised. I knew he was eager to get off the platform before people started gawking – people besides Tom and Logan that is – so he wandered back through the barrier.

"We just met Harry Potter," Tom breathed, looking thunderstruck.

"Got enough fan worship?" Rian asked, raising her eyebrow. Tom and Logan gave her an annoyed look before they were swept off by a giant of a man who vaguely resembled both of them.

"Well, see you later then," I said to Rian.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Later."

She hugged me and ran off to her smiling parents.

I went out to the car and climbed in, switching on the radio as we drove out of the car park.

"Your friends seem appropriately awestruck," Harry teased. He absolutely hated the fact people stared at him, and I didn't really blame him.

"They are," I agreed. "But I like them anyways."

"That's good," Harry agreed. "How were your marks?"

"Es in most things," I said. "Except for History of Magic, which I failed, and Astronomy, which I got an O on."

"In Astronomy? Really?" Harry asked. I shrugged.

"I do well at night," I replied. "About the only wolfish thing I inherited."

"Fair enough," Harry said. "Although we won't really know until the whole puberty thing happens."

"Thanks for making it weird," I replied.

"It's what fathers are for, as far as I can tell," he said, ruffling my hair. It settled back into turquoise and I left it that way. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if people stared.

**Review!**


	4. Thank You for the Music

**A/N: In case any of you were harbouring delusions that going to college means you have to grow up, I'd just like to say that I spend my time sitting in my room writing Harry Potter fanfiction while my roommates invade the living room so they can watch Pokemon. Usually at one in the morning. Yay college... Thanks for reviewing: Prunella7, Tom, and Blood and Dark Chocolate. **

**Disclaimers: I own nothing related to Harry Potter. However, I own Rian, Tom, and Logan. I do not own Doctor Who or any affiliated merchandise, I do not own Supernatural, I do not own the Iron Man franchise (no matter how much I wish I owned Matt Smith, Arthur Darvill, Jensen Ackles, and Robert Downey Jr). The song lyrics later in this chapter belong to the song "This Is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars. **

Chapter Three – Thank You for the Music

"_the songs I'm singing, thanks for all the joy they're bringing. Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty what would life be? Without a song or dance what are we, so I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me" _- ABBA

"Just to stay with some friends for a few weeks," I explained for the fifth time to my grandmother. "They're harmless, promise."

"What are their names?" she asked.

"Tom and Logan and Rian," I replied, silently thanking Rian for eschewing her full name in favour of something boyish.

"Does Harry say you can go?" Gran asked.

"Yes," I said. "Rian wants to introduce us to Muggle pop culture, whatever that might be. Said something about a telly and a cinema."

"Your grandfather took me to the cinema once," Gran replied pensively. "It was lovely. Well, fine then, go pack your things and go on. And shorten your hair, you look like a vagrant."

I nodded in agreement and ran upstairs to pack a bag, forcing my teal hair to recede into my scalp as I went. I had let it get long so that it was falling in my eyes.

I returned to the downstairs in time for Harry to turn up with the car.

"So where am I driving you?" he asked.

"Erm…Gloucestershire," I said apologetically. Harry sighed and shooed me to the car. "I'll be back in a fortnight!"

"Have a nice time, dear!" Gran called after me. I waved and clambered into the front seat. Harry started the car and I switched on the radio.

"Do you have your own wireless?" he asked curiously as we drove across the country.

"No, and Gran's always on a Celestina Warbeck kick," I replied, fiddling with the knob to try and find a station I liked.

"Eurgh, I'm sorry," Harry said. I left the station on and leaned back in my seat.

"Thanks for driving me," I said.

"Well, I wasn't going to let you fly," he replied. "And Merlin only knows how your gran would've tried to get you there left to her own devices."

I nodded in agreement and started trying to focus on the music. From what little I knew, there was a guitar, and some drums, and maybe a bass guitar.

_To the soldier, the civilian, the martyr, the victim – this is war_

_It's the moment of truth and the moment to lie, it's the moment to live and the moment to die_

_The moment to fight, the moment to fight, to fight, to fight, to fight_

"What are we listening to?" Harry asked. I shrugged, but I knew the lyrics halfway through the song. It was a trend that continued across the country, and since I kept it on relatively the same station – or at least stations that played the same music – the whole way across, I got to know a few of the songs.

"Are you…singing?" Harry asked curiously as we drove into the city of Gloucester.

"No," I replied, stopping immediately. Harry blinked at me in confusion and followed the signs to Quedgeley.

"What street does she live on?" Harry asked.

"Merlin Drive," I replied, snickering.

"You're kidding," he informed me.

"I'm really not," I said. Harry kept blinking in confusion and we found the street. It was full of perfectly normal looking houses with brown roofs and brick walls. Some had Tudor style beams worked into the upper storeys, and Rian's was one of them. Harry turned into the driveway and parked. I was slightly nervous when I clambered out of the car and was steeling my nerves to knock on the door when Rian burst out and hugged me. At least, I thought it was Rian, except all of her giant chestnut hair was gone. It was now shorter than mine.

"Hi," I gasped, struggling to breathe from where her arms were around my neck.

"Sorry," she said, letting go of me. "Hello again, Mr Potter."

"You can call me Harry, Rian," he assured her. "Are your parents here? I'd like to speak with them before I leave Teddy here alone for two weeks."

"Yeah, they're just inside," Rian replied, leading the way into the house. "Come on!"

Someone I assumed was Rian's little brother was sitting on the floor in the den staring at a glowing black box full of moving pictures. I stared at it in confusion. The bloke on the screen was wearing a fez and a bowtie and I had absolutely no explanation for it.

"Mum! Dad! Teddy's here!" Rian bellowed. The kid in front of the box jumped and clicked some sort of black wand full of buttons. The pictures on the screen faded instantly. "Teddy, this is my little brother Adrian."

"Nice to meet you," I said to Adrian. Adrian looked exactly like Rian and I noted with slight bitterness that he was taller than me. Then I thought about it again and noted with yet more bitterness that Rian was also taller than me. Adrian had the same oddly opaque, coffee-with-cream eyes as his sister, and the same wavy chestnut hair and olive skin.

"Yeah you too," Adrian said. He waved once at Harry and then flopped onto the sofa.

"When do you start Hogwarts?" Harry asked him.

"Erm…September," Adrian replied, sounding awkward. "Well, Rian's old for her year, and I'm young for mine, so it's not that weird really that we're only a year apart."

Harry and I exchanged looks. I hadn't been aware that either of us had said something that necessitated an explanation, but I shrugged it off. Rian was sort of weird, so it was understandable that her little brother would be weird as well.

Before we could say anything to Adrian, Rian ran back into the room followed by her parents and a large yellow dog who immediately jumped up, put his paws on my shoulders, and started licking my face.

"Sorry," Rian apologised, dragging the dog off me.

"It's fine," I replied, wiping the dog spit off my face.

"You must be Teddy's father," Rian's dad said, shaking Harry's hand. "Are you a wizard as well?"

"Erm, yeah," Harry agreed, clearly unused to people not knowing who he was. As annoying as it was to be stared at, it did at least save the bother of introductions.

"And you let your son dye his hair blue?" Rian's mother asked, eyeing my head with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry," I said, shifting it to jet black like Harry's. "Is this better?"

Both adult Calloways looked like you could knock them over with a feather.

"I wouldn't say I _let_ him dye his hair," Harry replied pensively. "But there isn't much I can do about it either. I trust you'll make them brush their teeth and eat their vegetables and not let them go wandering off into the night?"

"It's been the intention," Mr Calloway said. "Say, how did you get that scar?"

Harry's hand went automatically to his forehead. "You don't want to know," he said. "I promise. Well, Teddy, I suppose I'll see you in two weeks."

"Yeah," I agreed, hugging him. "See you later."

He ruffled my hair and it faded back to turquoise and then he was gone.

"Come on, I'll show you where you and Tom and Logan are staying," Rian said, dragging me off up a flight of stairs. "When they get here, that is."

"Right," I replied. "Which is when?"

"Tomorrow," she said. "Their dad got hung up at work and couldn't bring them until tomorrow."

"Oh," I replied, following her into a small bedroom furnished with a set of bunk beds and a kit bed. I took the top bunk instinctively and then she dragged me off to properly introduce me to her parents.

The next morning, Tom and Logan turned up and Rian immediately sat us in front of the glowing box and put a shiny disc into a box and pressed some buttons. Almost immediately, an image popped up on the screen that seemed to be asking us to make a selection.

"Play," Tom said, like he was expecting the box to hear him.

Rian laughed and pressed a button on the black plastic wand Adrian had been holding the night before. Then some music started playing and I liked it immediately.

"What is this song called?" I asked.

"Back in Black," Rian replied offhandedly. I nodded and made a mental note of it while things on the screen exploded into balls of fire.

"Holy shit!" Logan exclaimed, recoiling lest the flames attack him.

"Oh honestly, it's stuck on the telly," Rian pointed out, rolling her eyes at him.

"This is the coolest thing ever to happen," Tom replied. I had to agree.

Rian eventually explained that the film was called _Iron Man_ and the second one was almost on its way out of the cinemas and if we wanted to see something really epic, we should go immediately. She pointed out it was only a three mile walk from her house to the cinema, if that, and we ran off, Adrian trailing behind us.

If we had thought watching a film on the telly at the Calloways' house was impressive, the big screen at the cinema blew the three of us away with the sheer size and awesome of it.

"When does the next one come out?" Tom asked when we were walking back to the Calloways' house.

"Not for two years," Rian replied, sounding depressed about it.

By the end of the week, I discovered that Rian had a drum set in her bedroom.

"Do you play?" I asked curiously.

"A bit," she said with a shrug. "Why?"

"No reason," I said, but an idea was forming in my head. It was just missing several key elements.

The rest of the summer passed without incident, except for the four of us going back to my house for two weeks. Gran was a little less than thrilled that I hadn't told her Rian was a girl, but she settled down and let us get on with our Quidditch practice. All four of us were planning on trying for our house teams. As Tom had predicted, Rian showed great promise as a Seeker while Tom, Logan, and I spent the two weeks chucking Quaffles at each other.

"You know, together we would be four sevenths of an awesome Quidditch team," Logan declared while we packed our trunks for Hogwarts.

"Too bad we're all in different houses," I pointed out. A Quaffle bounced off the back of my head and without thinking about it, I turned and tossed it at Tom's head. Unfortunately, he caught it. "Except for Tom and Rian."

"And we're going to destroy your sorry arses at Quidditch this year," Rian replied.

"In your dreams, Marian," Logan taunted.

"Oh Levente, the only times I would ever dream about you would be if I was dreaming of beating your snake face in with a Beater's bat," Rian replied sweetly.

"Good," Logan said, sounding lost for a comeback. Tom and I laughed.

When we got to the Hogwarts Express, we were greeted by the Calloways and Adrian in his brand new Hogwarts robes.

"Why are you already wearing your robes, mate?" Logan asked him. The four of us were in jeans and t-shirts, most of which advertised for Iron Man except for Tom's which was navy and said _Bowties are Cool. _

"Didn't want to change on the train," Adrian explained, looking deeply awkward. I was sure I hadn't been that awkward the year before.

"Why is everyone staring at you, Mr Potter?" Mr Calloway asked curiously while a family of four passed us, both kids and parents slack-jawed at the sight of my dad.

"Erm…" Harry mumbled, looking as awkward as Adrian.

"He's the most famous person in the Wizarding world," Logan explained.

"Good lord, are you really?" Mr Calloway asked, looking fascinated. "What did you do?"

"It's a long story," Harry replied. Mr Calloway blinked at him like he really wanted Harry to start telling said long story.

"Long and very unpleasant," I piped up. "But he was the good guy, promise. Thanks for letting us stay this summer!"

I hugged Harry goodbye, left my hair turquoise, and ran onto the train. Tom and Logan followed me and we were shortly joined by Rian and Adrian. Adrian sat in the far corner closest to the door and kept staring straight ahead at something that could easily be misinterpreted as Logan's fly. When he noticed, Logan shuffled sideways so he was out of Adrian's stare. When Adrian's eyes didn't follow him, he realised Adrian hadn't necessarily meant to stare at him, he had just been there.

"I don't know what I'm going to do without music for a whole year," Rian complained.

"Right?" I replied. Over the summer, she had explained to me how her iPod worked and I desperately wanted one, especially one that would work in Hogwarts. Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely.

"We don't get music?" Adrian asked without breaking his staring contest with the bench.

"Electronics don't work at Hogwarts," Rian explained.

"How is it lighted then?" Adrian asked.

"With fire," Tom replied. "Everywhere. Everything is just on fire at all times."

Adrian finally broke his staring match with the upholstery and turned to lean around Rian so he could stare at Tom. "Really?"

"No," Tom said in a voice that pointed out he should have realised he was kidding. "Do you have a sense of humour at all?"

"No," Adrian replied.

"What are you? Castiel?" Logan asked. Adrian gave him a curious look. When he didn't seem to understand what Logan was talking about, Logan turned to give Rian a disappointed look. "So you haven't made him watch _Supernatural_?"

Rian frowned at him. "Logan, _I _haven't watched _Supernatural_. Not only is it a Muggle show, it's American."

"Oh," Logan replied, looking slightly ashamed.

"Is that what you did when you locked yourself in your room for the two weeks between Rian's and Teddy's houses?" Tom asked. Logan nodded. "I kind of thought you were just sitting in there jacking off."

Logan turned bright red and Rian, Tom, and I snickered at him while Adrian resumed his awkward stare.

Things had not got less awkward by the time we got to Hogwarts. We had introduced Adrian to the joys of chocolate frogs and he had informed me he got my father's card and then put it in his pocket protectively. Logan had accused Tom of doing absolutely nothing with his summer besides touching himself, which, unfortunately for our sanity, he hadn't denied.

"Okay, Adrian, you have to go take a boat to school," Rian informed him, shuffling him off towards the rest of the first years. He gave her a mournful look and the four of us headed off to a set of horseless carriages. We climbed into one and were joined almost immediately by two other girls in our year. One of them was in Ravenclaw with me, Celestia Thompson, and the other was in Gryffindor, Chloe Richardsen.

"Oh, it's you," Chloe said, rolling her eyes at Tom and crossing her arms before she turned to stare out the window. I hadn't noticed her before, but she had short brown hair and was much curvier than any of the other girls I knew. I wouldn't ever say she was fat, but she actually had boobs already, which wasn't common. Rian had nothing even remotely resembling boobs, and since she had cut all her hair off at the beginning of the summer, she looked like she could easily be a bloke.

"Richardsen," Tom replied, looking just as annoyed as she was.

"Hi, I'm Tia," Celestia piped up. Her hair was the same shade of brown as Chloe's, but it fell in soft waves around her face and she had large Spanish eyes and a straight nose that had just the lightest dusting of freckles.

"I'm in your house," I pointed out.

"Oh my goodness, sorry Teddy," she said. "I didn't recognise you with your blue hair."

I blew my fringe out of my eyes and shrugged.

"You didn't…erm…colour it, did you?" she asked, clearly wondering what else I could have possibly done to it.

"No, he's a metamorphmagus," Rian explained. "He was just intent on making himself seem boring last year."

"Oi!" I exclaimed. "I was not boring!"

"No, but you looked boring," Logan pointed out. I sneered at him and sank back in my seat.

The rest of the carriage ride passed in semi-companionable silence. Chloe didn't like Tom and Tom clearly did not like Chloe, so they made it uncomfortable for the rest of us with their heated glares, but if I ignored them it was mildly pleasant. For the opening feast, we had to sit at our house tables, so Tia and I walked off to the Ravenclaw table as soon as we got to the doors. The three other people in our year and house had ended up in the same carriage and all sat at the end of the table together. My dormmates, Kellan and Ethan, gave me an aloof stare and went back to gossiping or whatever it was they were doing. I sat down grumpily and fiddled with my cutlery while Tia and the other girl in our house/year, Scarlet, caught up on everything they had done that summer.

I just wanted the Sorting to be over so I could eat and go to sleep before I was forced to endure classes. Since I had discovered music, I wanted to do absolutely nothing except listen to it, but that was going to prove regrettably impossible while I was at school. But I wanted an iPod desperately so I could listen to it while I fell asleep so that maybe I could drown out Kellan's snoring and Ethan's sleep talking.

The Sorting was larger than it had been in our year, but we were the last of the kids born in the heart of the war, so that was sort of to be expected. The only person I had even the slightest interest in was Adrian and I was entirely unsurprised when he joined me at the Ravenclaw table. Whatever odd personality quirks he possessed, he did seem rather smart.

"Welcome," I said while we watched the rest of his year get sorted.

"Thanks," he replied, examining his plate and goblet with interest.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"Welcome to your Quidditch tryouts," the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain said, swinging his Beater's bat in a menacing way. "How many of you happen to be first years?"

A few shuffled off at the glaring dismissal and headed back to the castle.

"How many of you play Chaser?" the captain asked.

I lifted my hand, as did both of my dormmates.

"Well, we've only got one spot," the captain said. "So good luck."

Throughout the tryouts, I scored seven goals to Kellan's three and Ethan's one. I dodged six Bludgers, half of them sent by the captain himself, and I generally outperformed my competition.

"My mum played for the Harpies," I explained to the rather flabbergasted captain. "As a Chaser. I'm pretty sure my little brother is poised exactly for being a Chaser as well."

"Well, whatever genes you've got, they certainly have Quidditch in them," the captain informed me, shaking my hand and giving me the training schedule.

Logan had also made the Slytherin team and the two of us wouldn't shut up about it at dinner. Rian and Tom hadn't tried out yet, and they seemed to get more nervous each and every day closer to their tryouts.

Logan and Adrian and I attempted to watch their tryouts, but the Gryffindor captain threatened us with the Beaters and kicked us out since we were from other houses.

"Honestly, it's not like we were going to steal their tryout strategies," Logan griped while we sat at the Hufflepuff table picking at some toast. "We've all had our tryouts already."

"It's because you're a Slytherin," Adrian informed him before he turned back to his Charms textbook. "Gryffindors hate Slytherins."

"Well aware, thanks," Logan replied.

"How did your parents take it when you and Tom got into different houses?" Adrian asked without looking up from his book.

"Our mum doesn't care and our dad laughed for a moment before he remembered that our mum doesn't care at which point he dissolved into the most un-Scottish tears imaginable," Logan summarised.

Adrian nodded and kept reading.

"What are you studying anyways?" I asked. I was as interested in my schoolwork as the next Ravenclaw, but Adrian was _always _studying.

"I'm trying to figure out how to make electronics work here," he replied.

"Well if you figure it out, let me know," I said. "I'd love to have an iPod."

Adrian nodded and then we lapsed into silence. It had been about three hours before the Gryffindor hopefuls slumped into the Great Hall and started grabbing plates.

"Screw him," Rian grumbled, falling into the seat between me and her brother.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I made the team," Tom said, giving Rian a cautious look. "But..."

"But our captain is the Seeker and he can't exactly replace himself and he didn't take kindly to the suggestion that he should," Rian explained, pulling an entire shepherd's pie towards her and digging in.

"Did he at least put you on reserve?" Logan asked.

"Yeah because he would've been even stupider not to," Tom said. "So it should be fun playing Chaser against each other."

"I look forward to kicking your arse," Logan replied with an evil grin.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"I don't even know who I want to win," I said, watching Slytherin and Gryffindor play each other. Tom and Logan were entirely ruthless when it came to wresting the Quaffle away from the other and seemed to be unafraid of using body blows to achieve this. Both had been penalised three times for cobbing and the game had only been in play for forty minutes.

"Aren't we supposed to not care since neither is our house?" Adrian asked curiously. He was still reading a book, even though we were at a Quidditch game. I was starting to develop the impression that I was only in Ravenclaw because the Sorting Hat liked irony.

"Yeah, but look at that throw!" I exclaimed, pointing at the goal Tom had just scored. In retaliation, Logan grabbed the Quaffle and took off across the pitch. I decided in that moment that I could cheer for both teams without feeling too guilty.

Eventually Slytherin won because Gryffindor's captain/Seeker totally dropped the ball so to speak and screwed them over. Rian fumed all through dinner and complained that she had seen the snitch no fewer than ten times and she had been sitting in the changing rooms. Tom managed to suck up his pride and congratulate his brother on a good game.

Ravenclaw didn't have a game before the Christmas holidays, so I had everything to look forward to once we got back from Christmas.

Much like the previous year, I spent the week leading up to Christmas at the Potters' house while James incessantly quizzed me about being on the Quidditch team. Then we were at the Burrow and were setting up for the festivities. Charlie hadn't had any new run ins with Rian's grandmother over in Romania, and I went to sleep on Christmas Eve very content.

Yet again, I woke up when Victoire sat on my Christmas presents.

"Sorry," she said, sounding like she was cringing.

"You can't have forgotten _again_," I groaned, pulling my pillow over my head.

"I just could've sworn you were on the other sofa," she replied apologetically. I made an indistinct annoyed noise and gave up on trying to sleep before I reached down and found my new Weasley jumper. When I pulled it on, I considered it as proof that I was growing and wouldn't remain short, skinny, and awkward for my entire life. I was four months shy of thirteen and hadn't even begun to go through puberty as far as I could tell.

"It's whatever," I grumbled, digging through my presents for something interesting. Almost instantly, I noticed that one of them was a lot larger than my normal presents. I already had a broom, so I was pretty sure that it wasn't a new one. It was also too heavy to be a broom. "Do you suppose we're allowed to open presents?"

"I did," Victoire replied. "It's where I got this book."

"What is it?" I asked, turning on a light. Charlie was still unconscious on the other sofa with his arm flung over his eyes and I figured he spent enough time blocking out dragon fire at night that he could deal with a single lamp.

"It's called Percy Jackson and the Olympians," she replied, continuing to read her book. "It takes place in the States and there're all sorts of Greek Gods and things."

"Cool," I said, dragging the heavy box onto my lap. I peeled off the wrapping paper to see that it was embossed with the word Cobbler in scarlet on the otherwise black case. I raised my eyebrow and unlatched the case, at which point my jaw dropped.

"What is it?" Victoire asked, peering over the lid of the case with curious eyes. She hadn't managed to get glasses in the past year, but she clearly needed them the way she was squinting.

"It's a guitar," I replied, my dropped jaw evolving slowly into a manic grin. It was turquoise like my hair and when I ran my fingers across the strings, it thrummed in a very pleasing way.

"What are you going to do with a guitar?" Victoire asked, frowning at me.

"I'm going to learn how to play it," I replied, too excited to be annoyed with her.

I tore through the rest of my presents to see if there was anything else useful, only to discover a series of guitar books from most of my aunts and uncles. Rian had sent me an inexplicable plastic and metal stick about the size of my thumb with a note that told me to find a computer because the stick was full of music. Tom and Logan had sent me a box of chocolate frogs, which made me laugh since it was exactly what I had sent them, and in a very small box from my gran was my very own iPod.

"This is seriously the best Christmas ever," I exclaimed.

OOooOOooOOooOO

Returning to Hogwarts did nothing to dampen my spirits. Harry had explained that the guitar wasn't a standard Muggle guitar since it didn't need an amplifier and I could control the volume and the effects with my wand, and it would never go out of tune.

I immediately drove Kellan and Ethan mad by spending all my spare time figuring out how to play. I also started to drive Adrian mad because I would pop into the first year dorms every so often to ask him if he'd figured out how to make electronics work in the castle.

"Why are you so excited about this?" Tom asked while I enthused to them about my ever-improving guitar skills.

"Because," I replied, tossing my head sideways to try and get my fringe out of my eyes. "I figured out how we're going to be famous."

"And how's that?" Logan asked.

"We're going to have our own band," I explained like it was simple.

"So you've actually gone mad then," Logan replied. "Good to know."

I ignored him and went back to the Charms essay I had delayed for far too long.

The only thing that got in the way of my guitar practice was Quidditch, and since our first game of the season was against Hufflepuff, all three of my friends got to cheer for us. We won, and then it got awkward because we had to play Slytherin.

Logan and I glared at each other across the pitch, well aware that Tom was cheering for Slytherin and Rian was cheering for Ravenclaw. To my great delight, we won.

Unfortunately, we lost to Gryffindor because their Seeker finally got his shit together and managed to actually catch the snitch. Rian actually seemed more annoyed about this than anything else that happened that game. Tom and I almost got in a fist fight in the middle of the pitch over the Quaffle at one point and were both allowed to take penalty shots. I made mine. He didn't.

Despite our best efforts, Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup and the four of us (and Adrian) made our way back to King's Cross bickering about it in June.

"It's not like you even had anything to do with the fact you lot won," Logan pointed out, glaring at Rian.

"Like that's _my_ fault," she snapped, crossing her arms. "But I'll actually get to be Seeker next year because the twit is finishing school."

"Well bully for you then," Logan grumbled, slumping in his seat and kicking his feet onto the opposite bench. I kept playing my guitar and ignored them.

"You're actually getting pretty good at that," Rian said after a while, giving me a curious look.

"Thanks," I replied. "I still think we should form a band."

Rian, Tom, and Logan exchanged calculating looks.

"Yeah, alright," Logan said finally, and I realised that he had been the limiting factor when Rian and Tom exchanged high-fives. I grinned.

**Review!**


	5. Gryffindork

**A/N: Okay, so this chapter is narrated by Victoire. The reason the first three chapters covered two whole years so quickly was because I wanted to spend most of this story switching between Teddy and Victoire's points of view, but I didn't really want to ramble at you guys about Victoire's home life before she started Hogwarts. Thanks for reviewing: Prunella7, noodlesandcheese, Sarnia Nereid, and Blood and Dark Chocolate. I'm glad I'm not the only college student out there screwing around…**

Chapter Four – Gryffindork

(Victoire)

"You'll be fine, kid," Dad assured me, helping me pack my trunk for the third time. I kept going through it and swapping things out and then it wouldn't close and I would have to redo it and that meant swapping things out and I was halfway to leaving all of my clothes at home if it meant I could bring more books.

"No I won't, Dad," I replied, pushing my depressingly thick glasses up my nose. I absolutely hated that Teddy was right and that I needed glasses.

"Sure you will," Dad said, handing me a stack of my books. "Hogwarts is a great time. I mean, look at Teddy! He fits in great as far as I can tell."

"He failed half his classes last year," I pointed out. "Uncle Harry threatened to take away his guitar if he did it again."

"Yes, well, I just sort of meant that he's got friends," Dad replied, scratching the back of his head apologetically.

I gave him a pointed look. "Dad, I don't make friends," I said.

"That's my point!" Dad exclaimed. "Come on, Victoire, Teddy made friends. You can make friends too."

I sighed and shoved the four composition books I had into my trunk.

"Do you really need all of those?" my mother asked, appearing in the doorway.

"Yes," I replied with an intensity that made her recoil slightly.

"Sorry," she said, holding up a hand to try and placate me. "I just came to remind you both that Harry and Teddy will be here in half an hour."

"Why?" I asked, cringing at the idea.

"Wipe that look off your face, Victoire," my mother commanded. I tried to rearrange my features to something less displeasing. "Teddy is spending the night because we're giving him a ride to the station tomorrow."

I groaned quietly at the reminder I had to go to Hogwarts tomorrow, and went back to trying to cram my things into my trunk.

"And you should be nice to Teddy," my mum continued. "Since he'll be an older student in your house."

"Don't remind me," I replied, finally declaring my trunk complete until my mother pointed to the box of tampons on my bedside table. My face burned bright red and I stuffed them into my trunk. "Don't remind me."

"You're a woman now, Victoire, it's nothing to be ashamed of," my mother said airily, tossing her silvery hair with a practiced ease.

"I'm not a woman," I said. "I'm eleven."

She shrugged and muttered something in French before she went off to make dinner.

I sank onto my bed and hugged my pillow close. As soon as I was sitting, my pet fox scampered up to me and crawled into my lap. I scratched him behind the ears. He had been a birthday present in May and I had named him Pantalaimon. McGonagall had made an exception to the pets rule in order to allow me to bring him to school since he was the sweetest and most docile creature on the planet.

"What if I don't want to go?" I muttered so that only Dad could hear me. He sat down on the bed next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. Pan leaned over and licked his hand.

"Would you rather go to Beauxbatons? It would make your mother happy if you did," Dad replied.

"No," I said, surprised at the vehemence in my voice. I wanted nothing to do with France, or my mother for that matter.

"So...what? You want to stay here and be homeschooled?" he asked.

"Can I?" I asked.

"No," he said. He ruffled my hair. "I promise, you'll be fine at Hogwarts. And if you're not, I can show up and kick anyone's arse."

"Thanks," I mumbled. Downstairs, I heard the front door open, followed by the excited footsteps of my younger siblings running down to say hi to Harry and Teddy.

I sighed again and Dad pulled me off the bed so we could go down and say hi. I kept a hold of Pan for moral support and tromped down the stairs.

"Nice glasses, Vicky," Teddy said, nodding at me in recognition.

"Don't call me that," I snapped, my face turning blotchy in anger.

"Right, sorry, _Victoire_," he replied with unnecessary emphasis on my name that seemed to imply he thought I was ridiculous. I glared at him. If all thirteen year old boys were like Teddy, then I wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.

"Remember," Harry said, squeezing Teddy's shoulder in an authoritarian way. "If you don't get good marks this year, I will take your guitar."

"I remember," Teddy said apologetically. I rolled my eyes and then had to pull Pan away from Louis's fingers. Louis was only six and Pan didn't like him.

"None of this 'I can get an O in Astronomy since I don't have to sleep but I can't be bothered to deal with anything else' tosh, you hear me?" Harry continued.

"Yeah," Teddy said. "I'm sorry."

"Good," Harry said. He shook Dad's hand and blushed slightly when my mother swooped in and kissed him on either cheek. You'd never guess that he was the most famous person in the Wizarding world since my mother of all people can make him blush.

"Teddy, you do not mind sleeping in Louis's room, _non_?" my mother asked, sweeping Teddy up the stairs to Louis's room.

"You excited to start Hogwarts, Victoire?" Harry asked kindly as Louis ran up the stairs after our mother and Teddy.

"No," I replied. I have a terrible problem of being an awful liar. I think it's sort of funny, since I'm a writer and I write fiction all the time, and yet the actual act of lying is next to impossible for me.

"Really? Why not?" Harry asked.

"She doesn't want to leave home," Dominique explained, swinging her miniature Beater's bat experimentally. She had three years to go until she could start Hogwarts and she was not happy with the arrangement.

"Well, Hogwarts will be great, I promise," Harry assured me, hugging me after I shifted Pan so he was around my shoulders instead of in my arms.

"Thanks, Uncle Harry," I mumbled.

"Oh so you'll believe him but not me?" Dad asked, pretending to be grumpy about it.

"He's not required to try and make me feel better," I explained.

"Sure he is," Dad replied. He turned to Harry. "You'll be staying for dinner."

"I sort of told Ginny I'd be home before midnight-" Harry started to say.

"It wasn't a question," Dad interrupted. "Get Ginny to Floo over, bring the kids, we'll make a day of it."

I sighed and slipped out of the room back up the stairs to my room. I shared it with Dominique and it was very clear which half of the room was mine. Her half was covered in Quidditch posters and was perfectly neat. My half was lined with bookshelves and was normally strewn with clothes since I was usually too busy reading or writing to bother with cleaning. Unlike me, Dominique had a broom that was placed very primly on her window seat. My window seat was covered in bits of paper and several of the books that I wasn't bringing with me to Hogwarts.

I flopped onto my bed and Pan laid across my chest with his small black paws lightly touching my chin.

"But I don't want to go," I told him, rubbing his ears.

"You're talking to a fox," Teddy informed me from the doorway. He had his arms crossed and one leg crossed in front of the other. His turquoise hair was falling into grey eyes and he'd adopted high cheekbones and a sort of thin face with a strong jaw. He would've been cute if I hadn't thought he was so annoying.

"His name is Pantalaimon," I replied, deciding not to dignify the content of his comment with a response.

"You actually did get a fox named Pantalaimon?" Teddy asked, sounding torn between amusement and exasperation.

"He was a birthday present. He's only four months old," I replied, stroking the bridge of Pan's snout. He brushed his nose across my chin.

"Is McGonagall letting you bring him to school?" Teddy asked.

"Yes," I replied. I had a thought that the real reason she had agreed was because I was the first Weasley in my generation to attend Hogwarts. It was part of the reason I didn't want to go. That, and puberty had decided it hated me and I was going through everything at once. I woke up every morning with growing pains in my back and my legs, my face was disgustingly splattered with spots to the point that it looked like I had spattergoit, and I'd started my period. The only thing that hadn't decided to go ahead with the puberty thing was my chest, which was as flat as ever. My mother's only form of comfort was that because I was part Veela, puberty would be a lot shorter for me than it would be for my peers. It wasn't very comforting.

"Cool," Teddy said. "Your mum says that dinner's ready and that Pan isn't invited to the meal."

I rolled my eyes and shifted the fox off my chest. He gave me an affronted look and curled up on my pillow.

"Sorry, you've got to stay here because her highness doesn't like you," I informed him, petting his head. Pan had been a present from Dad and my mother couldn't stand him.

"Do you think he actually understands you?" Teddy asked as I brushed past him into the stairwell. I noticed as I did that we were the same height.

"Are you really that short or do you just do it for fun?" I asked.

"I'm not short!" Teddy insisted. He turned slightly pink. "And I've been informed that you can't change things like height until you've stopped growing, so yes, this is my actual height."

"What are you, then? 5'4"?" I asked, walking down the stairs.

"I – oh shut up," he grumbled, following me down the stairs. I laughed at him and took my seat at the table. Ginny had shown up with James, Albus, and Lily. Immediately it seemed, James and Louis had run off to create havoc since they were the same age. Well, almost. James would be six in October and Louis wouldn't be six until March.

"You must be excited to start Hogwarts, Victoire," Ginny said, handing Lily to Harry so he could bounce her on his knee.

I didn't feel like getting into a discussion about it, so I just smiled awkwardly and picked at the Yorkshire pudding on my plate. Maybe as a peace keeping effort, my mother had made most of my favourite foods. Except for Dad's steak, which was very rare. He trimmed a good portion of it off and set it to the edge of his plate. I knew it was so I could sneak it upstairs to Pan as soon as dinner was over.

I managed to tune out my dad, Harry, Ginny, and Teddy reliving their favourite Quidditch moments from their Hogwarts days – only made slightly more tolerable by Ginny's actual pro days – and then I finally got to go to sleep and sneak the steak up to Pan. He had the courtesy to eat it on the floor instead of my pillow.

I don't want to go.

OOooOOooOOooOO

But I had to. In the morning, I squeezed myself uncomfortably into my jeans, well aware of the fact my stomach bubbled out above the waistband and pulled on an oversized sweatshirt I had stolen from my dad. Pan protested being put in his carrying case, but eventually gave up when I promised to let him out on the train.

My mother hugged Teddy and me goodbye since she had to stay home with Nika and Louis. Then Dad loaded us into the car and we set off for London. It was still early, so Teddy and I both attempted and failed to fall back to sleep. He had white headphones in his ears and didn't seem keen to share. I couldn't read in the car, so I settled for staring out the window instead. I was getting more and more anxious the closer we got to London. I had absolutely no desire to do this, but I had to.

On the platform, people were bustling around everywhere. Most of them did a double take when they saw Dad's scars, but that only made them give us a wide berth instead of stopping to badger us. Teddy said that when Harry had dropped him off the previous two years, people had pointed and stared. At least Dad's face just made them worried for their safety.

"Well, I'm going to go find my friends," Teddy said, taking his trunk from Dad with his guitar slung across his shoulder and his broom in one hand. He had his wand stuck in his back pocket and his shirt had some sort of upside down pentagram surrounded by fire on it.

"What's that on your shirt?" Dad asked curiously.

"Erm...it's from the TV show _Supernatural_," Teddy explained. "My mate Logan is sort of obsessed. His new life goal is to grow up to be Dean Winchester, but, erm, yeah. So thanks for the lift, Uncle Bill."

He turned and ran off.

"You'll be fine," Dad assured me, helping me find an empty compartment. I smiled thinly at him and he stowed my trunk in the overhead compartment. He hugged me tightly and kissed the top of my head. The hug shoved my glasses into my face but I found that I didn't really care. It was the last time I was going to get to hug my dad until Christmas.

"Bye Dad," I said when the train whistle blew. He kissed the top of my head again and jumped off the train, leaving me alone in my compartment with Pan. Immediately, I pulled out one of my notebooks and sat down at the table to write. No one bothered me the entire train ride, except for the witch selling sweets. I bought a few liquorice wands and then didn't move again until I had to put on my robes. Pan was very disappointed that he had to go back in his carrier, but he was less annoyed by that than the fact he couldn't come with me to the Sorting. I promised him that I'd see him in the dormitory and followed the rest of the first years to some boats. My dad had explained the whole sorting situation and the boat ride and I was still horribly nervous while I climbed into a boat with a few of my classmates. From what everyone in my family had told me, they all met some of their best friends on the train to Hogwarts. Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione had all met on the train. Uncle Charlie had met Teddy's mum, Nymphadora, on the train. My grandparents had met on the train. And my train ride was just me, my fox, and my fictional characters.

I decided that this could not possibly bode well for any social life I intended to have, and numbly followed my classmates up a flight of stairs and into the Entrance Hall.

Uncle Neville smiled at me but other than that he didn't acknowledge my existence. I decided this was a good thing and went back to trying to be inconspicuous.

He told us that we were going to be heading into the Great Hall where we would be sorted into our houses – which would be like our families – and I tuned him out because my heart was fluttering nervously in my chest. There was no way anyone in my family had been this nervous while they were being Sorted. They were all Gryffindors, and here I was, perfectly poised to be the first Weasley in Ravenclaw. It was a good thing, I figured, because then I wouldn't be expected to be brave or confident or any of the other things Gryffindors were known for.

My knees were shaking when Neville led us into the Great Hall. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and feel it in the soles of my feet.

_Get a grip Vicky_, I scolded myself. _You might not be a Gryffindor, but you've got six generations of Gryffindors to live up to and you don't get to embarrass them by vomiting on your first day while in public. _

I took a deep breath and figured I'd have to set the scene. Describe it in my head like I was writing so that maybe I would stop freaking out.

Myriads of candles were twinkling under the storm clouds on the ceiling. The older students at the tables looked patiently annoyed by the Sorting like they just wanted it to be over so they could eat. Most of them were talking to friends and swapping stories of their summers. The Gryffindor table, everyone clad in scarlet and gold, was the loudest. Despite the fact I was the only Weasley on the premises, there was a plethora of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes occupying the Gryffindor table. I certainly did not belong there.

The Hufflepuff table was full of smiling people. Every single one of them was smiling and they all looked so happy. Maybe I could be a Hufflepuff. Being a Hufflepuff might be nice. The more I stared at the yellow table, the more I wanted to be one of them. Just be with a group of nice people at all times. Everyone in my family was so loud and so boisterous that it was tiring. Even the little kids were over exuberant at every given opportunity. I wanted nothing to do with that. Thinking about my family and Hufflepuff just made me remember the story Uncle Neville had told us once when I was little, that he had argued with the Sorting Hat endlessly to try and get it to put him in Hufflepuff but it had essentially told him to stuff it and sent him off to Gryffindor. Since he was now a War Hero with capital letters, I think the Hat was right in his case.

Everyone at Ravenclaw looked quiet. They were certainly the quietest table. Everyone was talking softly to each other, and I figured it might be an effect from the blue surroundings. Blue was my favourite colour. And since I spent most of my time reading and writing, I would fit in well in Ravenclaw. I was sure that was where I was going to end up, but I wanted to be in Hufflepuff. I could just see the disappointed smiles on my family's faces already. Victoire Weasley, child of war heroes; Victoire Weasley, Hufflepuff. They would pretend they didn't care that I hadn't followed in the family's footsteps.

Merlin, we were practically a mafia. You do what the Family wants, and you work for the Family's best interests, and you—

"Archer, Mallory!"

I snapped to attention and focused on the stool at the front of the group. The stool that housed the hat that would decide my fate for the next seven years of my life.

Mallory Archer was sorted into Slytherin pretty quickly.

My family would be disappointed if I was in Hufflepuff, but they'd straight disown me if I was in Slytherin.

Benford, Lewis was in Hufflepuff. Brandon, Victoria (because that won't be confusing) was in Gryffindor. Brooks, Jeremy was in Ravenclaw.

Katelyn Connors was in Gryffindor. Travis Crawford was in Ravenclaw. David Davenport was in Gryffindor. Deborah Drew was in Slytherin.

The Es, Fs, Gs, passed in a blur. Michael Harvey was in Gryffindor. Nicholas Heller was in Ravenclaw. Is, Js, Ks. Eleanor Morris, complete with Weasley red hair, was in Gryffindor. Bailey Noonan was in Gryffindor. Olive O'Sullivan was in Hufflepuff. Brandon Peterson was in Slytherin. Eddie Quagmire was in Hufflepuff. The Rs passed without incident, most of the Ss. Hannah Spacey was in Gryffindor. Ts, no Us, no Vs. I was the only person left. Everyone was staring at me. I could see Teddy at the Ravenclaw table, his hair royal blue to match his house just for the occasion. I swallowed nervously and sat down on the stool. I hoped that no one in the crowd could see me trembling.

_Please put me in Hufflepuff_, I thought the moment the Hat touched my head.

"Hufflepuff?" a voice replied in my ear. "You have to be _nice_ to be in Hufflepuff. All this nonsense about Gryffindors having hearts of gold, psh. It's the Hufflepuffs who have hearts of gold, and you, my girl, are certainly not one of them."

My heart – apparently not hewn of gold – sank in my chest, although it didn't stop beating erratically.

"You're certainly smart enough to be in Ravenclaw," the Hat continued. "Yes, I think you would fit in well there. But would you fit there the best…hmm…"

The Hat lapsed into silence.

My trembling turned into full blown shakes like I was a leaf caught in the storm raging outside the castle. The Hat couldn't seriously be considering Slytherin, could it? If I really didn't have a heart of gold, then Slytherin would be an obvious choice.

I could already see the looks of horror and disgust on the Family's faces. I swallowed. I looked bad in green. I would look awful in the house uniform.

"Oh do stop worrying," the Hat said. I could swear it was rolling its eyes, except that it didn't have any. It took a deep breath and shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

I stopped trembling immediately and stayed frozen to the stool while the Gryffindor table exploded into cheers. Of course everyone had noticed me shaking. The moment Uncle Neville had read out "Weasley" all eyes were stuck to me. And now all three houses that I wasn't in seemed sort of depressed about it. Apparently they were all hoping I was going to be the first Weasley to grace their presence. Instead, I was just continuing the Family tradition.

"Victoire," Neville whispered quietly. "You have to go sit down."

"But there's been a mistake," I whispered back. "The Hat sorted me wrong. I don't belong there."

"I promise, you'll be fine," Neville assured me. "Why don't you go sit down?"

He pulled the Hat off my head and shooed me towards the Gryffindor table. I ended up between my new dormmate Victoria Brandon and a tall, thin boy with bright blond curls and dark brown eyes. Under his school robes and Gryffindor tie, he was wearing a navy blue t-shirt that said "Bowties Are Cool."

"Welcome to the Balls than Brains Brigade," he said, grinning at me. He had the strangest accent I had ever heard.

"Honestly Tom," the girl sitting across from him said. She had thick, wavy chestnut hair that was cut long in the front so that it almost fell to her chin, but got shorter towards the back of her head. She was unhealthily skinny and had the strangest creamy eyes. Combined with her olive skin and pouty lips she looked like she could be a runway model.

"What?" the blond boy – apparently Tom – asked as though he hadn't done anything wrong.

"Forgive him," the girl said. "He doesn't have manners. If he ever gives you any trouble, just call him Gabriel and he'll shut up."

"Oh screw you, Marian," Tom replied.

"My name is Rian," she snapped, giving him a death glare. I almost laughed.

"So if your name is Weasley, my guess is that you know Teddy," Tom said, returning his attention to me.

"What about him?" I asked, piling some food onto my plate. To my immense relief, Rian also stacked an unhealthy amount of food onto her plate.

"Oh, he's just one of our best friends," Tom explained, gesturing across the table at Rian. "Him and my git brother who's in Slytherin."

"Oh," I said, because I didn't know what else to say.

Farther down the table, the rest of my year were recounting stories of their lives leading up to that point. Some of them were half-blood because their magical parent had hidden with the Muggles during the war. Some of them were Muggleborn. Only one other person was pureblood, Bailey Noonan, and it made me feel sort of ashamed of my heritage. Idly, I wondered if I was going to be ostracised for this, but blood status wasn't supposed to matter anymore. The papers kept saying we were living in a "post-blood-status society" but I didn't really know what that meant.

When the pudding popped up on the table, I grabbed a handful of chocolate biscuits and a slice of cake. I dug in with enthusiasm until I noticed Victoria Brandon watching me with disgust. Very slowly, I set my fork down and pushed my plate slightly away from me.

"Are you going to eat that?" Tom asked, nodding at my cake.

"N-no," I said.

"Cool," he replied, grabbing it and digging in. Rian gave him a grossed out look, but I think it had more to do with the fact his entire face was covered in chocolate, rather than the judgmental look Victoria Brandon had given me. As I followed the rest of the Gryffindors towards our common room, the same four words kept repeating in my head. _I don't belong here._

I was walking behind Rian and Tom when suddenly someone ran into me.

"Whoops, sorry," Teddy said, sparing me the briefest of glances and clapping Tom on the shoulder. "We're good for Saturday, right?"

"Dude, chill out," Rian recommended. "We've got it covered."

"Right, just making sure," Teddy replied.

"This is your floor," Tom pointed out, gesturing off to the side of the stairwell that must have led to the Ravenclaw common room.

"Yeah, yeah," Teddy said. He squeezed between me and Rian and paused to the edge of the stairs. "Hey!"

I realised he was talking to me after a second. "What?" I asked.

"Good job, Gryffindork," he called, and then he turned and ran off.

I willed myself not to collapse into tears in public.

"I'm sure you know this better than either of us since you've known him forever, but don't let Teddy being a prick get to you," Rian recommended. I nodded in agreement and tried to figure out what exactly had been going through the Sorting Hat's head when it decided to put me in Gryffindor. The only thing I could come up with was that it had taken one look at my last name and my non-gold heart and had pitched me in with the rest of my family.

"Hey," Tom said, giving me a concerned look. "Gryffindor's awesome. You'll be fine."

"Everyone keeps saying that," I replied. For whatever reason, I sounded like I was completely held together. "They keep telling me, 'you'll be fine, promise.' Do I look rather broken?"

"Erm, maybe just a bit," Tom said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "It's not because Teddy called you a Gryffindork, is it?"

"You want to know something funny?" I asked as we rounded a corner and came up the seventh flight of stairs to a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. If I ate too much cake this year, I would probably be the same size as her by the end of term.

"Always," Rian replied, stopping in front of the portrait.

"Teddy was actually nice until he started Hogwarts," I said like I was giving away some great secret about the workings of the universe.

As I talked, I realised a few things at one. I didn't want to be in Gryffindor, and I didn't want to be at Hogwarts at all for that matter since I just wanted to stay at home and stay in my room writing and reading books and playing with Pan, but as long as I was going to be stuck here against my will, I would rather be damned than act like some silly homesick little girl. Then I realised that my ability to act like absolutely nothing was wrong might very well have been why I was sorted into Gryffindor in the first place.

Rian and Tom burst out laughing. "You're kidding," Tom informed me.

"Nope," I said. "He was nice enough that I could've sworn on my life he was going to be in Hufflepuff."

"No shit," Rian replied, looking shocked. "We'll have to hold this over him later."

"Oh definitely," Tom agreed. "Say, Victoire – it is Victoire, right? – you don't happen to have any embarrassing stories about him when he was a kid, do you?"

"Besides the fact that he's thirteen and I'm taller than him?" I asked.

"Fair enough," Rian replied. She turned and faced the rest of the house crowding behind us. "Oi, anyone seen a bloody prefect?"

A fifth year shuffled through the crowd and told the fat lady in the pink dress the password. The portrait swung forward to reveal the Gryffindor common room that so many of my family members – all my family members – had told me about. I took a deep breath and followed a girl prefect up the stairs to my new room. There were six four-poster beds arranged in a circle around the central stove. There was a trunk at the foot of each bed and most of us had some sort of pet carrier on our beds. I found mine quickly and let Pan out of his cage. He immediately jumped off my bed and made a beeline for a fluffy Persian cat that seemed to belong to Hannah Spacey. The two were quickly joined by a curious looking fat calico, who shoved her flat looking face right up against Pan's muzzle.

"You have a fox," Bailey Noonan informed me, looking slightly awestruck.

"Yeah," I replied, feeling slightly awkward while I dug through my trunk for my pyjamas.

"Is it…tame?" Eleanor Morris asked.

"I think so," I said. "The only people he doesn't really like are my brother and my mum."

I was pretty sure that Pan would stop liking Teddy the minute I asked him to, which was my next order of business.

"So Victoria and Victoire, do either of you have nicknames?" Hannah Spacey asked.

"I'm Tori," Victoria Brandon replied.

"Just Victoire," I said.

"Well there's no way that's going to be confusing, is there?" Bailey replied with a laugh. "Nice to meet you all!"

As I climbed into my bed with Pan curled protectively around my head like a hat, I steeled my nerves. I can do this. I can get through this. It's only seven years of my life, which is more than half the time I've been alive.

With that depressing thought, I drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

**Review!**


	6. Swing Life Away

**A/N: Hey there everyone! As an aside, links to every single song Teddy, Rian, Tom, and Logan play can be found on my profile. Thanks to Prunella7 and Blood and Dark Chocolate for reviewing. Also, Blood and Dark Chocolate, I keep wanting to reply to your reviews but I can't because you have private messaging disabled. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. The song lyrics here included belong to Rise Against. Swing Life Away is from the album Siren Song of the Counter Culture, Roadside is from The Sufferer and the Witness. **

Chapter Five – Swing Life Away

"_Am I loud and clear or am I breaking up?" _– Rise Against

(Teddy)

"How pissed was your dad when he saw your marks?" Logan asked over breakfast the first morning back.

"He was bloody livid," I replied, spearing a kipper off Tom's plate and slapping it on a piece of toast from Rian's. "He threatened Michelangelo."

"And someday you're going to explain why you've named your guitar Michelangelo, right?" Logan asked.

"Only if Tom explains why he's named his dick Flynn," I replied with a shrug.

"Hey, it's better than Logan naming his after his man-crush," Tom exclaimed.

Rian stared between the three of us with slight despair in her eyes. "Oh I need girl friends," she groaned, hiding her face on the table.

"It's not a man-crush!" Logan replied with a dark glare at his brother. He lightened up almost immediately though. "My love for Dean Winchester is honest and true."

Rian, Tom, and I exchanged looks.

"You know, most of the time I think you're straight and then…" Rian said, giving him a slightly amused look.

"Let's see here…" Neville said from behind me. Rian and I spun around very quickly, hoping like hell that he hadn't heard the rest of our conversation. "Calloway…ah, here we are."

He handed Rian her timetable.

"What extras are you taking?" I asked, peering at it.

"Muggle Studies just for fun, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination," Rian replied.

"McEwan…" Neville continued, flipping through it. He pulled out two timetables. "Here you both are. And…ah, Lupin. See you all in half an hour!"

He handed me my timetable and buggered off. A quick glance proved that we had Herbology first thing. Because the universe has a sense of humour, the first day of classes was on a Friday.

"Well Herbology should be fun at least," I said, letting my hair turn green for the occasion.

"Yeah probably," Rian agreed. "I like Professor Longbottom. He's an okay bloke."

Before any of us could reply, there was a shout from the Ravenclaw table.

"I did it!" the lanky, almost skeletal second year exclaimed, jumping up from the bench and accidentally showering those nearby with blue sparks from his wand. With an excited bound, he had crossed over to the Hufflepuff table in a few seconds and flopped onto the bench next to us. He was so skinny I was sure he was going to break something solely due to the contact.

"Morning Adrian," Logan said, giving him a concerned look. "Did you eat anything this summer?"

"He did nothing _but_ eat," Rian replied.

"Then why's he look like someone put a stretching jinx on him?" Tom asked.

"Puberty has a way of doing that to people," I pointed out.

"Not that you'd know, pipsqueak," Logan replied. I glared at him.

"What did you do, Adrian?" Rian asked.

"Give me your iPods," Adrian commanded. Rian and I exchanged worried looks but grudgingly handed them over anyways. Adrian waved his wand over them and mumbled something excitedly. There was a spark on both screens and then the apple logo faded into view.

"You figured out how to make them work?" I demanded, briefly toying with the idea that although I liked girls and he was my best friend's little brother that maybe I could kiss him in thanks.

"Try them!" Adrian insisted.

I needed no further prompting to put my headphones in my ears and press the play button.

_Tonight my heart is cold. Lost in your lies, shallow replies. _

I laughed with giddy excitement. "Adrian, you are my favourite person on the planet right now."

"Oi," Rian said, slapping me in the arm. "Keep saying crap like that and I'll start thinking you love my brother more than me."

"I could never love anyone more than you," I replied in the most sappy voice I could manage.

"Probably for the best since you don't seem to love anyone else," Tom piped up, stealing my toast and kipper and taking a bite. I frowned at him.

"What are you on about?" I asked.

"Your friend-cousin-thing-whatever Victoire," Tom elaborated.

"What about her?" I asked. I was sure I was going to get an earful from the family eventually about not sitting with her on the train, but you make friends on the train. Everyone makes friends on the train.

"She clearly does not want to be in Gryffindor and then you had to go and call her names," Tom said.

"See, we know that you mean Gryffindork as a term of endearment, but I don't think she saw it the same way," Rian continued.

"Huh," I said. "Whoops. I won't call her Gryffindork again, then. Can we go back to being excited about having music again?"

"Yeah," Tom agreed.

"And you guys have your stuff, right?" I asked.

"It's all ready," Rian assured me. "Let's not get flayed alive for missing Herbology on the first day back."

"Yeah," Logan and I agreed, jumping up from the bench. We bid Adrian goodbye, thanked him for the iPods again, and then ran off to the greenhouses.

Neville was in rare form, exclaiming excitedly about everything in the greenhouse. It was only after a five minute monologue about the poetic beauty of lichen that someone thought to ask him what in God's name was wrong with him.

"Erm, sorry," he said, blushing slightly and rubbing a spot of dirt off his nose. "My wife's pregnant and just owled me this morning."

I knew that he already had a kid, Frank age five, but he looked so excited about the prospect of having another kid that even I couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm.

"That's so great for Professor Longbottom," Logan said as we walked to Charms. Rian and Tom and I stared at him for a long moment. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just that usually, you come across as the abrasive asshole of the lot of us," Tom said with a shrug. "Not the touchy-feel 'my Herbology professor is giddy about having a kid, isn't that great?' type."

"Sorry," Logan replied. "I just sort of liked the idea of congratulating someone on a functional marriage."

That shut Tom up for the rest of the way to Charms. He didn't speak again until we got to lunch, and then he looked sort of pissed off anyways.

"How's that all going?" Rian asked finally.

"Our grandparents really, _really_ want us to come back to Budapest," Tom explained. "And our mum really, _really_ doesn't want us to come back since we remind her of our dad."

It seemed that neither Rian nor I knew what to say to try and make them feel better about this, so we returned to our lunch.

After lunch we had Muggle Studies, all four of us. We were joined by Tia Thompson, Evan Wood, and Ian McAvery.

"Well if I had any plans of making girl friends…" Rian grumbled, falling into a desk towards the front of the room. I laughed quietly and sat next to her. Without warning, Tia Thompson swooped in and sat in the other chair beside Rian. Logan frowned since normally he sat on Rian's other side. Giving Tia a perturbed look, he sat down next to Tom and continued to glare at Tia for the entire period.

"Welcome to Muggle Studies," our professor said with a cheerful smile. She was bubbly and bright and had a pleasantly round face. She looked like a mother. "Now, very quickly, how many of you are Muggleborn?"

Rian alone raised her hand.

"Really," our professor said, sounding enthusiastic. "Are any of you pureblood?"

Tom, Logan, and Evan Wood grudgingly raised their hands.

"Well then," she said. "Good to know. Alright then, Miss – are you Calloway or Thompson?"

"Calloway," Rian replied.

"Well then Miss Calloway, it will be your job to make sure I get things right," our professor said with a kind smile in Rian's direction. "I grew up in the Wizarding world, but when I was in my early twenties, the war broke out and I was forced into hiding. I lived as a Muggle for thirteen years before I decided to come back to Hogwarts last year and share my knowledge with all of you. I'm still a little unsure of how things like the internet work, but then, so are most Muggles." She laughed to herself.

"Did you hear we're getting Netflix in the UK next year?" Rian piped up like she couldn't help herself.

"Yes!" our professor exclaimed, sounding just as enthusiastic about it as Rian. "I've been meaning to watch that American show…LOST I think it's called…and all the back episodes of Doctor Who, so…"

"I like this class," Tom decided. I couldn't help but agree.

After Muggle Studies, we had to split ways so Rian and Logan could go off to Divination and Tom and I could carry on to Ancient Runes.

"I don't know why they would willingly take Divination," Tom said.

"Rian's grandmother is a gypsy fortune teller," I replied. "Maybe it runs in the family."

"Yeah, but what the hell is Logan doing in Divination?" Tom asked.

I shrugged, equally confused, and we settled in to take our notes.

After dinner, I kept my promise to Harry and stayed up until I had finished absolutely all of my homework. I figured he couldn't yell at me for practicing my guitar if I was already done with my schoolwork.

I was sitting in the common room when Tia Thompson walked through and smiled brightly at me before she burned bright red.

"H-hi, Teddy," she said shyly, and then she ran up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. I frowned in confusion but let it go.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"Alright," Rian said at breakfast. "Teddy, you're in charge of talking to McGonagall about borrowing a room to practice."

"Why am I in charge?" I asked.

"Because it was your idea to make a band in the first place," Tom replied. "Now go."

I swallowed the tail end of my coffee, steeled my nerves, and made my way up to the head table. Neville eyed me suspiciously, as did Professor MacMillan (Charms), and Professor Davies (Transfiguration). McGonagall looked up when I approached her and raised her eyebrow.

"Yes, Mr Lupin?" she asked.

At the mention of my last name, I shifted my features ever so slightly so that I would resemble my father more closely. From what I had heard, he was once a prefect and a professor so hopefully that would incur some good credit despite my abysmal marks the previous term. It was the main reason Professor Davies kept giving me suspicious looks – it was entirely unseemly for someone in his house to barely scrape by.

"Hi Professor," I said with what I hoped was a winning smile. "My friends and I, erm, that is Rian Calloway and Tom and Logan McEwan, well we've formed a band and we were curious if there was an empty classroom we could use to practice."

McGonagall was completely taken aback but I didn't understand why until she nodded.

"Yes, I believe there's a classroom on the fourth floor that would be useful," she said. She blinked at me for a moment. "I believe that might be the first time anyone in your family has asked for permission before doing something."

"It's because he's a Ravenclaw," Professor Davies said confidently, giving me a small smile. I smiled back and made my way back to the Hufflepuff table.

"Did it work?" Tom asked.

"Yup," I said, refilling my coffee cup. "Fourth floor. Shall we?"

Everyone else nodded in agreement and we dispersed back to our rooms to get our various instruments. Tia was sitting in the common room when I walked through with Michelangelo.

"Are you going to play your guitar?" she asked me, blinking her warm brown eyes at me.

"Erm, yeah," I said. "Tom and Logan and Rian and I are starting a band and we haven't got to play together all summer, so…"

"Can I listen to you practice?" she asked eagerly.

"Erm, maybe after we've figured out how to play something together," I said. She deflated.

"Oh," she said. "Okay. Well, I'll see you later, Teddy."

"See ya," I replied, ducking out of the common room and making my way down to the empty classroom on the fourth floor. Rian and Tom were already there and Rian was setting up her drum kit. Like me, Tom played the guitar. Logan was to be our bass player.

"What took you so long? You're closer than we are," Rian said.

"Tia Thompson was asking if she could watch us practice," I explained, opening my guitar case and pulling out my most prized possession.

"Why?" Tom asked, sounding as confused about it as I felt.

Rian rolled her eyes. "Because she's got a huge crush on Teddy."

"What?" I said, my eyebrows shooting into my hair.

Rian and Tom were both staring at me in horror.

"What?" I asked, my eyebrows creeping back down my forehead.

"The eyebrows-into-hairline expression is a lot less creepy when it isn't literal," Tom explained. I shrugged and strummed a cord on my guitar.

"Hey, sorry I took so long," Logan said, running into the classroom. "Flint wanted to read me the riot act about taking Muggle Studies and hanging about with Gryffindors."

"Eurgh, he gives me the creeps," Rian said, rapping her drumsticks on her leg.

"So can any of you play any songs yet?" I asked.

"Sort of maybe," Tom replied. "We never figured out who was going to sing, you know."

I shrugged.

"Can you play any songs yet?" Logan asked, fiddling with his bass. It was a Muggle bass, since Logan was rather obsessed with everything Muggle, so he had to tune it.

"Erm, I can play one," I said. "You all get bonus points if you don't laugh at me for singing."

"Go for it," Rian recommended. "Because I sure as shit can't sing."

"Me either," Logan replied.

I fiddled with my guitar nervously, suddenly very self-conscious.

"Well, come on then," Tom said. "It's just us."

"Right, right," I replied, picking out the opening notes. I calmed down as soon as the music started and I could feel the guitar strings thrumming under my fingers.

And then before I could talk myself out of it, I started to sing.

_Am I loud and clear or am I breaking up? _

_Am I still your charm or am I just bad luck?_

_Are we getting closer or are we just getting more lost?_

_I'll show you mine if you show me yours first._

_Let's compare scars, I'll tell you whose is worse_

_Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words_

_We live on front porches and swing life away_

_We get by just fine here on minimum wage_

_If love is a labour I'll slave til the end._

_I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand. _

I was vaguely aware of the three of them staring at me, but ignored it so I could actually get through the song without feeling too awkward about it.

_I've been here so long I think that it's time to move_

_The winter's so cold, summer's over too soon._

_Let's pack our bags and settle down where palm trees grow._

_I've got some friends, some that I hardly know. _

_But we've had some times I wouldn't trade for the world_

_We've chased these days down with talks of places that we will go._

_We live on front porches and swing life away_

_We get by just fine here on minimum wage_

_If love is a labour I'll slave til the end_

_I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand._

I finished the song to the tune of dead silence. I looked up nervously (I had been singing at the floor) to discover all three of them staring at me with wide eyes and slack jaws.

"See I know we said, sort of jokingly, that we were going to be famous for being in a band, but…" Logan started.

"But we're so actually going to do it and it won't be a joke," Rian finished.

"Well, but see, now we have a problem," Tom said.

"We do?" I asked.

"I like singing as well," he said. He pursed his lips for a moment. "I suppose we could both sing."

"Works for me," I said. I kept being struck by the horrible thought that at some point my voice was going to break – and hopefully I would also grow a foot in the process – and then I wouldn't be able to sing anymore. But for the time being, I had spent the entire summer driving Gran mad by singing along with my iPod with my headphones in. Once she recommended that I play my music out loud so the voices wouldn't just be in my head, but the one time I had I had been listening to Senses Fail and she refused to let me do it again.

"So you listen to Rise Against," Tom said, picking at his own guitar. He considered for a moment. "Do you know this song?"

He started to play, and I did know the song. It was called Roadside, but he couldn't play the whole guitar intro on his own so I picked up the second guitar part.

"Tell me what I'm supposed to do with all these leftover feelings of you, 'cause I don't know," Tom sang. His voice was deeper than mine, but he was quite no bad. "And tell me how I'm supposed to feel when all these nightmares become real, 'cause I don't know."

"And I don't think you'd see the places inside me that I find, don't think know how we separate the lives here from the truth, don't know how we woke up one day somehow though we knew exactly what we're supposed to do," we sang together, managing to find an appropriate harmony. "So leave me at the roadside and hang me up and out to dry."

We got halfway through before Logan joined in on the bass. By the time we finished the song, Rian had started in on the drums as well, but very quietly as the song didn't require them.

"Yeah, I think we've got this," I said with an elated grin.

"Maybe we can learn to play a sappy love song and you can play it for Tia," Rian suggested with a playful grin.

I wanted to be annoyed with her, but I was too thrilled to have real music in my life.

"Let's all collect some songs we want to play and try to figure out what sort of music we want to play," Logan suggested. "And we'll meet here on Saturday mornings."

"Saturday mornings until Quidditch starts," Rian corrected. "And then after that, Sundays."

"Works for me," I said. "But can we just stay here playing for a little bit?"

Everyone was more than happy to indulge me.

**Review!**


	7. Potions Essays

**A/N: Thanks for reviewing - Blood and Dark Chocolate, Prunella7, Sarnia Nereid, melancholicmermaid, and trombone girl. In this chapter, Victoire continues with first year and things (sort of) get better. **  


Chapter Six – Potions Essays

(Victoire)

By the end of the first full week, I had sort of calmed down about being in Gryffindor. I still didn't like it and I was still pretty convinced I didn't fit there, but I was willing to let that go in the interest of self-preservation.

It had taken all of thirty seconds for Eleanor Morris – who went by Ellie – to decide she and Tori Brandon were best friends. Hannah Spacey and Bailey Noonan were pretty close as well. Instinctively, this made me think I should try to be friends with Katelyn Connors, but she had yet to speak to any of us and I didn't really want to force her into anything like friendship if she didn't want it.

It was painfully obvious that I was not the only one going through puberty. Bailey was tall and looked sort of like a pug – she claimed to have two at home – and was starting to get spots. Ellie, with her flamingly ginger hair and freckles, looked like she could be a dead ringer for anyone in my family and often didn't tell anyone her last name because people automatically assumed she was a Weasley if she didn't say anything. Tori was short and round and had stick straight brown hair that fell in lank sheets around her face. She also had a brace on her teeth since her parents lived as Muggles, despite the fact her mum was a witch. Hannah was thin and had a sort of quiet, mousy appearance. Bailey was loud and opinionated which I think was why they were friends. Bailey talked for Hannah and Hannah went along with it. Katelyn was very short, less than five feet tall if I had to guess, and had dark, dark brown hair and glasses thicker than mine.

"Hey Victoire," Bailey said halfway through the second week. "We were going to go to breakfast. Do you want to come with us?"

I glanced at my notebook where I had been working on my story and at Pan passed out on my pillow.

"Erm, sure," I said, grabbing my school bag and following the four of them down to the common room. Katelyn was still asleep and we all just left her there.

"What were you working on?" Bailey asked.

"Nothing," I said automatically. My mother always rolled her eyes when I talked about my writing. Most of the time I could corner Louis and make him listen to my stories, but he was never really happy about it. Dad, on the other hand, always listened with rapt attention and seemed to genuinely care.

"Really? Because I'm a writer too," Bailey said. Her pale blue eyes lit up with excitement. "We could start a Hogwarts Newspaper!"

"Erm, yeah, maybe," I replied, willing myself to sound less awkward. My parents both wanted me to make friends. They would probably be proud of me for even talking to Bailey, let alone working on a newspaper together. "I'm not sure McGonagall would go for it though."

"Sure she would!" Bailey assured me. "My whole family's gone to Hogwarts for ages, and you're a Weasley. She's never going to say 'no' to you about anything."

I managed a smile at her enthusiasm and then pulled my glasses off to clean them on my robes.

"Here," Hannah said quietly, offering me a standard glasses-cleaning cloth.

"Thanks," I said, smiling at her and cleaning my glasses. I handed her the cloth back. "I didn't know you wore glasses."

"Only to read," she replied with a shrug. "I'm farsighted."

"No one's really farsighted," Bailey said. "Just old people."

Hannah shrugged and went back to staring at her feet.

I quickly discovered that Bailey was right about everything. She knew everything and she was right about everything and on the off chance that she was wrong, well, she was still right, you just had to look at it from a different angle.

"Let's go watch the Quidditch tryouts," Tori suggested in mid-October.

"Why? They don't let first years on the teams," Ellie replied.

"Yeah, but there will be cute boys there," Tori pointed out.

"Boys are just a distraction," Bailey said airily.

"A distraction from what?" I asked. As usual, Hannah was poised to go along with whatever Bailey said and Katelyn sat on her bed doing homework and not saying anything.

"From everything," Bailey replied. "From our studies and from friends and from the other important things in life."

"Okay," I said, glancing back at my notebook.

"But it's not like we're doing anything else today," Ellie said. "We may as well just go watch."

Tori and Ellie looked so enthusiastic about it that Bailey finally relented. Once the three of them were out of the dorm – Hannah was still looking for her gloves and I was trying to find my hat – I took a step closer to Katelyn's bed. Ours were right next to each other.

"Do you want to come with us?" I asked.

Katelyn raised her eyebrow at me. "No you have fun," she said, sounding like she didn't mean it.

"Sorry then," I said, edging away from her and following Hannah out of the room. "What's her problem?"

"I don't know," Hannah replied. "Maybe she doesn't like Tori or Ellie or Bailey very much. Or you or me."

I nodded and tried to figure out what I might have done to annoy her, but couldn't come up with anything.

"But I'm pretty sure it's Bailey she doesn't like," Hannah continued.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because Bailey says everything Muggle is rubbish," Hannah replied with a shrug. "And Katelyn's Muggleborn."

"Not everything Muggle is rubbish," I said, staring at her in confusion since Bailey was already out at the Quidditch pitch and I couldn't stare at her in confusion. "You don't believe that, do you?"

Hannah shrugged. "My grandparents are Muggles on my dad's side but they both died when I was little."

"But Muggle books are the best!" I insisted as we walked out the front doors and started across the lawn towards the Quidditch pitch.

"Really?" Hannah asked, looking curious.

"Yeah," I said. "They get everything wrong about magic and it's adorable."

"Don't let Bailey hear you say that," Hannah recommended.

I sighed. "Well, fine, but you should read the _Golden Compass_. It's great."

"Do you have a copy?" Hannah asked.

"No, I left it at home, but I can bring it back after Christmas," I replied while we climbed the stairs to the stands. We took our seats on either side of Bailey and turned to watch the Quidditch tryouts.

On the pitch, I noticed that the only returning Chaser was tall with curly blond hair and he was casually chatting with the rail thin, equally tall Seeker. As far as I could tell, they were Tom and Rian.

"I don't really know why people would want to play Quidditch," Bailey said dismissively while Ellie and Tori giggled about one of the auditioning Beaters. "It's so dangerous."

"My dad played Quidditch," I said. "So did my Uncle Charlie. And my uncles Fred and George, and my Uncle Ron, and my Aunt Ginny, and my Uncle Harry, and my Aunt Angelina, and my Aunt Audrey, and my granddad. The only people in my family who haven't played Quidditch are my gran, my mum, my Uncle Percy, and my Aunt Hermione."

Bailey gave me a strange look. "But it's dangerous," she said.

"I know," I replied, avoiding her judgmental stare. "I didn't say it wasn't. I just said they played."

"Well, none of them played professionally," Bailey said confidently as though anyone would be stupid to play Quidditch professionally.

"My Aunt Ginny played for the Harpies for six years," I replied with a shrug. "And the Magpies gave my dad an offer when he was a seventh year, but he ran off to Egypt to be a curse breaker instead."

Bailey gaped at me. I wasn't sure if it was because I had contradicted her since she _obviously_ knew my family better than I did, or if it was because my aunt had played for the Harpies.

"Why would your dad turn down the Magpies?" Ellie asked curiously.

I shrugged. "I dunno," I said. "Never asked him."

"What's he like?" Ellie asked.

"He's my best friend," I said. My dad and my pet fox. My two best friends in the whole world. "I dunno, he was a prefect and Head Boy and he got offered a spot on the Magpies and he turned it down to go be a professional curse breaker for Gringotts and then he married a Tri-Wizard Champion and fought in the war and I dunno, he's my dad."

Ellie stared at me in shock.

"And my grandparents were Head Boy and Head Girl together and my Uncle Charlie was a prefect and Quidditch Captain, and my uncle Percy was a prefect and Head Boy, and my Uncle Ron was a prefect, and my Aunt Ginny was a prefect and…" I listed, growing slightly more depressed the more I thought about it. I had so much to live up to. In the halls I could hear people whisper behind my back about how they would absolutely love to be a Weasley because wouldn't it just be the best thing ever and all it did was make me angry. I didn't get to be my own person because I was part of the Family, or the First-Wizarding Family, as I had heard someone call us. Like we were royalty.

"It's good that your family has set a precedent of excellence," Bailey said with a decisive nod.

"Yeah," I said grudgingly.

"Oh, Victoire, when's your birthday?" Bailey asked. "So we can throw you a party. Mine's December 31st, and Hannah's is May 8th, Ellie's is June 30th, and Tori is February 17th."

"Erm it's May-" I caught myself before I could finish the sentence. It was bad enough I was already a Weasley. "Third. May 3rd."

Tori shuddered slightly. "That's so close to the battle," she said. "Can you imagine what it would be like to have your birthday on the _actual_ _day _when you-know-who was defeated? Doesn't it just give you chills?"

May 2nd, 2000. Two years to the day after the battle. 4:06 in the morning on the same day Uncle Fred died, and the same day Teddy's parents died, and the same day most of Hogwarts was destroyed. It was like they named me Victory as some kind of sick joke. No one ever felt like celebrating on my birthday, at least not in my family. They all felt bad about it, of course, because if nothing else, everyone in my family is nice, but we still always celebrate my birthday either a week before or a week after the actual date.

"No," I said finally. "I can't imagine."

OOooOOooOOooOO

By the end of October, Tori and Ellie were devoutly obsessed with Tom. They had decided he was the cutest guy in our entire house and school, and they were going to convince him to have a crush on one of them before the year was out.

I was sitting in the common room working on potions homework when I noticed him and Rian leaving the common room.

"Hey, Tom," I called, standing up and walking over to them.

"Oh, hey Victoire," Rian said. Tom nodded his head in greeting.

"Hi," I said. "I just wanted to warn you that two of my dormmates have a crush on you."

Tom looked stricken.

"Rian, this didn't happen last year or first year," he said, giving her a desperate look.

"Yes it did, sweetie, you were just too stupid to notice," she replied, petting his shoulder in a comforting way.

"Who had a crush on me?" he demanded. Then he turned back towards me. "And which of your dormmates? Not the cute, quiet one?"

He sounded almost hopeful.

"Which cute, quiet one?" I asked. Technically both Hannah and Katelyn matched that description. "And no, neither of them."

Tom cringed slightly. I completely understood the feeling since leaving out the 'cute, quiet one' left only Bailey, Tori, and Ellie. Well, and me, but I was pretty sure I didn't count.

"And, in answer to your earlier question, Chloe Richardsen had a crush on you until you called her fat," Rian said. Tom's eyes bulged and he looked truly horrified. I didn't know Chloe Richardsen, so I wasn't sure if he was horrified by the fact it was Chloe Richardsen, or if he was horrified he'd called her fat.

"Oops," he mumbled. He glanced at his watch. "We're gonna be late and Teddy's going to strangle us with his guitar strap."

"Yeah," Rian agreed. "See you later, Victoire!"

They ran out of the common room at high speed and I returned to my homework. Almost instantly, Tori and Ellie sat down across from me.

"You talked to Tom," Tori accused.

"Tom's ours," Ellie continued. They were both glaring at me with dangerous looks in their eyes.

"I was just talking to him," I promised. "And I don't _like_ like him anyways. And he doesn't like you either."

"What?" Tori gasped. "You told him?"

I glanced between them. Though I had known the two of them and Tom for the same amount of time, I still liked Tom better. At the opening feast, Tori had given me a judgmental look for eating cake, and Tom had asked for second helpings.

"I just warned him that one of the girls in my dormitory liked him," I said. "I didn't say names. I just figured he deserved to know."

"He wouldn't like you anyways," Ellie snapped, burning bright red.

"I don't like him that way," I replied, wondering why they looked so mad.

"It's because you're fat," Tori practically shouted, jumping off the sofa and glaring at me.

I recoiled and hugged my arms around my rather puffy stomach. I knew I wasn't skinny, but I didn't need her to tell me that. Especially not since—

"You're fatter than I am!" I shouted back.

Tori's jaw dropped and she snatched my potions essay off the table and flung it into the fireplace before she ran away crying with Ellie trailing after her. I cowered in a ball in the common room trying not to cry and not to notice that everyone nearby was staring at me. I felt fat, I _was_ fat – so much for all my mother's Veela genetics – and I felt bad for making Tori cry and I was so angry at her for burning my potions essay. I had been so close to done with it and now I was going to have to start all over.

It had only been a few minutes when the portrait hole swung open and heavy footsteps approached my small pocket of misery. A firm hand touched my shoulder and I lifted my face off my knees to see Neville looking down at me in pity. A prefect was standing behind him looking concerned. In that moment, I sort of hated the prefect for getting Neville. It was clear I was going to get into trouble and he was going to tell my parents and it was going to be the prefect's fault.

"Why don't you come down to my office," Neville suggested in a firm tone that made it clear it wasn't a suggestion.

I stood up shakily and grabbed my bag and my potions book before I followed him out of the portrait hole, my eyes on my feet the entire time.

It was a long walk to his office and it passed in silence.

"Would you like a biscuit?" he asked, offering me a tin of what looked like ginger newts. My stomach growled but then Tori's face swam in front of me calling me fat and I declined. He said I should sit down, so I did. "So what happened?"

"What did the prefect tell you?" I asked, playing with the hem of my skirt.

"She said that harsh words were exchanged and that Miss Brandon threw your paper into the fireplace and then ran off crying," he summarised.

"She called me fat," I explained. I took a deep breath. "And – and then I called her fat and she lit my potions essay on fire. I was almost done too, and it's due tomorrow, and I'll never finish it in time and I'll fail and then the Family will disown me because I'm not good enough and-"

"Hey, whoa, calm down," he said in his most comforting voice. He dug through his desk for a moment and then came back with a chocolate frog. "A very smart man once told me that chocolate is some of the best medicine on the planet, even when dementors are what's got you down."

"I don't want any chocolate," I said, even though I did. My mother always said I ate too many sweets and now I was fat and she was right.

"How about I talk to Professor Greenwood about getting you an extension on your essay," Neville suggested. "I'm sure she'll understand."

I nodded and kept eyeing the chocolate frog. Very subtly, it edged towards me.

"My gran always said I ate too many sweets," Neville said pensively. "Now I have a wonderful wife who packs me a sack lunch ever Sunday night and makes sure to give me extra biscuits and sweets."

"You get to go home on the weekends?" I asked enviously.

"I think Hannah – my Hannah, that is, not your dormmate-" he smiled when he said 'my Hannah' "—threatened McGonagall with physical dismemberment if she didn't let me go home every once in a while."

I almost laughed at the thought of the very sweet barmaid at the Leaky Cauldron threatening Professor McGonagall.

"Was your gran right?" I asked quietly. "Did you eat too many sweets?"

He shrugged. "I dunno," he said. "Probably, but I think I turned out alright, don't you?"

I had to nod in agreement. He was tall and trim and handsome and didn't look anything like a boy who had eaten too many sweets a day in his life.

"Here, can I show you a picture?" he asked, rifling through his desk for a moment without waiting for me to answer. The picture he returned with was clearly of my uncles Harry and Ron when they were my age, along with a sandy haired boy and a tall black boy, and a short, chubby, round-faced boy who looked like he didn't quite know what he was doing in the picture.

"That's not you," I said, staring at the picture closely.

"Yeah, it is," he replied. "Growing up does things to a person, but we all get through it. And it doesn't matter if Tori Brandon calls you fat today, because for all we know, you'll shoot up like a weed and end up being too skinny. Besides today, how are you doing? Your parents wanted me to send a report, and frankly, your mum kind of scares me, so…"

I managed a shaky smile. "Tell them I'm fine," I said.

"I'm only going to tell them you're fine if you're actually fine," he replied. "Are you?"

I considered my answer for a long moment. "I wanted to be in Hufflepuff," I said finally.

"Me too," he replied with a smile. "But the Sorting Hat turned out to be right in the end, I suppose."

I winced. "It said I didn't have a heart of gold," I said. "That I wasn't good enough to be in Hufflepuff."

Neville winced as well, like he'd realised his earlier comment would mean the Sorting Hat had been right about me as well.

"I'm sure it was wrong in this case," he assured me. "Now why don't you take the chocolate frog and go back to your dormitory and work on your new essay?"

I nodded and picked up the box and my bag. On my way out the door, I paused.

"Who was it that told you chocolate was good medicine?" I asked.

"Professor Remus Lupin," he replied without looking up from his desk. "One of the smartest and bravest men I ever had the privilege to know."

I silently thanked Teddy's dad while I took a bite of my chocolate frog. It did make me feel better, and so did the Godric Gryffindor card in the bottom of the box. The picture gave an approving nod at my Gryffindor tie and I managed to smile.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"That was what I meant when I said boys were a distraction," Bailey said when I told her and Hannah what had happened with Tori and Ellie. "They just ruin friendships."

I nodded in agreement. I hadn't been particularly close to Tori or Ellie, but it wasn't pleasant to share a room with them when they would both glare at me if I left my curtains open and took up more space than strictly necessary. Merlin forbid I run into one of them in the bathroom because they would just glare at me while I brushed my teeth, or steal my towel, or my underwear.

They had only stolen my towel once when I had been down at the girls' showers with Hannah. She didn't have any spares to lend me, though, and I was stuck with the very unpleasant prospect of either putting on my clothes while soaking wet, or waiting for Hannah to run back to the dormitory and back with a new one.

"Here."

I peeked out from behind the shower curtain to see Katelyn Connors standing there with a fluffy pink towel. She looked exasperated and was wrapped in a dressing gown and fluffy bunny slippers.

"Thank you," I mumbled, taking the fluffy pink towel and drying off as quickly as I could. I pulled on my pyjamas and handed her the towel back.

"Did you actually call Tori fat?" she asked, putting the towel in her bathroom caddy.

"She called me fat first," I said defensively. Katelyn was a full head shorter than me and absolutely tiny.

"That sucks," Katelyn replied. She didn't say anything else and left the bathroom quickly like she was afraid she'd broken her own rules by talking to me.

In November, it was the first Quidditch game of the season, traditionally held between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Ellie and Tori spent the entire week up to the game theorising about what they should wear since Tom was going to be playing. I kept to myself in my bed with my notebooks while they got dressed up for the game.

"You're going to freeze," Bailey informed them. She had deigned to go to the game since that's what one was _supposed_ to do. Hannah was clearly trying not to seem excited by the idea of the Quidditch game since Quidditch was against Bailey's commandments of things that were permissible to be excited about. Katelyn had left very early in the morning.

"Come on Victoire," Bailey instructed, tossing me my cloak and my hat. I pulled them on and followed her and Hannah out of the dormitory, all three of us agreeing by unspoken consensus to leave Ellie and Tori on their own to get ready for the game.

We found ourselves seats in the Gryffindor section of the stands, our Gryffindor scarves flapping in the wind. We had been sitting there for a full ten minutes in the building anticipation and excitement when I heard someone who was unmistakably Teddy from the other side of Hannah and Bailey. He was sitting with a very thin, very gangly, very tall boy who looked like Rian Calloway. They were both wearing Ravenclaw scarves and between them they had a Slytherin and a Gryffindor pennant.

"No, no," Teddy said to the boy. "Beaters are better than the bat, the bat is better than the Bludger, and the Bludger is better than the Beater."

"But…wait, it's just rock-paper-scissors, isn't it?" the boy asked.

"What are you two talking about?" I asked, leaning around Bailey and Hannah.

"Oh, hey Victoire," Teddy said dismissively. "Adrian is unfamiliar with Beater-Bludger-Bat and we're just trying to pick which of us roots for Slytherin and which of us roots for Gryffindor."

"Why would you be trying to decide that?" Bailey asked, giving Teddy a deeply disapproving look. Teddy frowned at her.

"Well, because his sister and one of my best friends are in Gryffindor and my other best friend is in Slytherin," Teddy explained. "What do you care?"

"Shouldn't you just be rooting for your own house?" Bailey asked.

"Our house isn't playing," Teddy replied. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Bailey Noonan," she replied. "This is Hannah Spacey and Victoire Weasley – like _the_ Weasleys."

"You don't say," Teddy said coldly. "Funny, it's almost like I haven't known her since she was born or anything."

"Sorry?" Bailey asked, glancing at me and then at Teddy suspiciously.

"Erm, Bailey, Hannah, this is Teddy Lupin," I said. "My uncle Harry is his godfather."

"Your uncle Harry as in Harry Potter," Bailey replied, looking slightly awestruck.

"That's the one, yeah," Teddy agreed. "You might have heard of him once or twice…"

"I didn't know," Bailey said, actually looking slightly chagrined.

"Then maybe you should get to know people before you act dismissive towards them," Teddy recommended. "Here, Adrian, you cheer for Gryffindor. I don't particularly feel like it."

Adrian seemed completely lost but accepted the Gryffindor pennant anyways.

Eventually, Tori and Ellie showed up in something that looked like homemade shirts with slogans that said "McEwan is the Best!" in Gryffindor red. They sat in the very front row – two in front of us – and cheered loudly with the rest of the Gryffindor first years sitting there.

"Oi, Would-Be-Weasley!" Teddy called, chucking a balled up piece of parchment at Ellie's head. She spun around and searched for the offending thrower. When she discovered that it was Teddy – complete with Slytherin green hair and silver eyes – she looked mortally offended. "Which McEwan are you cheering for?"

"What do you mean 'which'?" Tori snapped, tossing her hair and turning Ellie around so they didn't have to look at him.

From a ways away, I heard someone laugh. Quick investigation showed it to be Katelyn Connors and three of the boys in our year – Michael Harvey, Nicholas Heller, and David Davenport. They laughed at Ellie and Tori and then went back to talking animatedly about something. I was slightly comforted by the fact that Katelyn had friends even if she didn't talk to anyone in the dormitory.

"Alright ghouls and gargoyles," the announcer said. "Welcome to the opening match of the 2011-2012 school year! As you all know, it's Gryffindor versus Slytherin – a blood-feud almost as old as the school itself. Playing for Gryffindor we have Captain O'Brien playing Keeper, Hutch and Olson playing Beater, Remington, O'Leary, and McEwan playing Chaser, and Calloway as Seeker!"

The Gryffindor team zoomed onto the pitch to loud screams from our section. Tori and Ellie looked like they were about to wet themselves in excitement when Tom flew by the Gryffindor stands.

"And playing for Slytherin we have Tomlin playing Keeper, Captain Morris and Selwyn playing Beater, Thurgood, Prentiss, and McEwan playing Chaser, and Renfrew as Seeker!" the announcer continued.

As the Slytherin team zipped around the pitch, Ellie and Tori's excited cheers about Tom's presence turned to confused stares while a Slytherin player sped past them with the name McEwan written on his robes. The only discernible difference between him and Tom was the fact the Slytherin version had dark hair.

"What?" I heard Tori ask.

"Yeah, they're twins," Teddy called down. He turned to address the players. "Kick his arse, Levente!"

The Slytherin McEwan flipped Teddy off and went back to hovering in the middle of the pitch, waiting for the Quaffle to go up. We crushed Slytherin soundly because it took Rian all of ten minutes to catch the Snitch.

That night in the dorm, Tori and Ellie kept us all awake by having a very in-depth conversation about this surprising development that Tom had an equally hot twin who happened to be in Slytherin.

"Would you both shut up?" Katelyn demanded at three in the morning when they still hadn't stopped talking. "They don't give a flying rat's ass about either of you."

She pulled her pillow over her head and shut her curtains with a flick of her wand. At that moment, I really liked her even if we had never had a real conversation. Maybe despite the Tori-Ellie situation, Gryffindor wouldn't be so bad after all.

**Review!**


	8. Foreign Language

**A/N: Alright, so yes, there are kind of a lot of frequent updates based solely on the fact I'm trying to get as much of this story done before school starts as I possibly can. Thanks to: Sarnia Nereid, noodlesandcheese, Blood and Dark Chocolate, and Prunella7 for reviewing. Those of you who added the story to their alerts or favourites, I do love you guys as well, but I would love you even more if you reviewed. Plus, then you get your names put down in infamy at the beginning of the chapters!**

**Disclaimers: The lyrics to "Roll Away Your Stone" belong to Mumford & Sons. The lyrics to "Foreign Language" belong to Anberlin. Links to the songs can be found on my profile on the off chance that someone in the universe hasn't heard "Roll Away Your Stone" before...**

Chapter Seven – Foreign Language

(Teddy)

"We'll be fine," Tom assured me, running his hands through his hair in a manner that suggested they would not be fine.

"No, seriously, don't worry about it," Logan recommended. "It's not like you have any room at your place for us for Christmas anyways."

"I do," Rian said. "Seriously guys. My parents like you both. If you don't want to stay here for Christmas, you're more than welcome to come stay with us."

"We'll be fine," Tom said. "We'll get up to trouble and it'll all work out. Just…go home. Have a great Christmas. And bring us shit tons of chocolate frogs."

"Yeah," Logan agreed. "We got Adrian to fix a laptop for us and jerry-rig it so we get internet. I think we're going to spend the entire break figuring out how to project YouTube videos onto parchment so we can screw with people and get extra credit in Muggle Studies."

"We are?" Tom asked.

"Just think about it – one day, all the Hufflepuffs pull out their parchment and suddenly 'Honey Badger' is playing on full volume," Logan said, spreading his hand across the air in front of him to demonstrate the brilliance of his idea.

"Good luck with that," I said. "You're sure you're going to be fine?"

"Yeah," Tom replied. "I mean, we'll be crashing at your house all summer whether or not you'd like us to, so do with that what you will."

"Why?" Rian asked.

"So we don't have to talk to our dad," Logan explained. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

Rian looked like she really did want to know, but we were about to miss the train to London.

"Well, we'll see you guys when we get back," she promised, hugging Tom and then going to hug Logan. They paused about a foot from each other and then awkwardly shook hands instead. Tom rolled his eyes.

"Bye," I said, clapping them both on the shoulder and following Rian out to the platform. Adrian caught up to us, huffing and puffing, while we found a compartment.

"Where are the McEwans?" he asked curiously, collapsing into a seat.

"They're staying at Hogwarts for Christmas," I explained. I had my guitar out before the train had left the station and Rian tapped out a beat on the table with a couple of books for a different sound than just the table.

We had been going like this for a few minutes when the compartment door slid open and three first year Gryffindor girls helped themselves to our compartment. I rolled my eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

Their ring leader was tall – taller than me or Rian but a head shorter than Adrian – and vaguely resembled a pug. She walked with an air of self-importance. The last time I had seen her, her second-in-command was a quiet, mousy girl with pretty green eyes who was very slight and very good at keeping her head down and taking absolutely anything Bailey said to her as absolute gospel. Apparently, though, she had been demoted in favour of the strawberry blonde with a bad case of spots and thick glasses who I had known for my entire life.

"Hi Victoire," Rian said, smiling kindly at her. Victoire looked startled at being addressed, but smiled back.

"Hi Rian," she said. "Do you lot mind if we sit here?"

"Go ahead," Rian said. I grumbled and set my guitar in my lap, trying not to cringe when Bailey sat next to me.

"Can I help you?" I asked her.

"What were you playing on your guitar?" she asked curiously.

"Erm…it's called _Roll Away Your Stone_," I replied, hoping like hell she wasn't going to ask me to play it.

"You sing?" Victoire asked, sounding deeply confused.

"He's actually really good," Rian piped up. I shot her a pointed look that said she wasn't helping, but she either didn't get it or ignored me because she liked watching me suffer.

"Play for us," Bailey commanded. Normally, I would've thought of it as a request, but Bailey clearly thought of herself as a princess capable of commanding her "loyal" subjects to do what she wanted.

"Come on, Teddy," Rian said with an evil smile. I re-evaluated and decided she definitely just liked watching me suffer.

I grumbled slightly to myself and mumbled the spells that would make my guitar emulate several different instruments at once. Over the past four months, I had got pretty good at it.

_Roll away your stone, I'll roll away mine._

_Together we can see what we will find._

_Don't leave me alone at this time,_

_For I'm afraid of what I will discover inside. _

'_Cause you told me that I would find a hole_

_Within the fragile substance of my soul_

_And I have filled this void with things unreal_

_And all the while my character it steals._

_But darkness is a harsh term don't you think?_

_And yet it dominates the things I've seen. _

_It seems that all my bridges have been burned._

_But you say that's exactly how this grace thing works. _

_It's not the long walk home that will change this heart, _

_But the welcome I receive with a restart. _

_And darkness is a harsh term don't you think?_

_And yet it dominates the things I've seen. _

_Darkness is a harsh term don't you think?_

_Yet it dominates the things I've seen. _

I was peripherally aware of Rian drumming out a beat along with me. Also of all three girls and Adrian staring at me with some combination of shock and awe.

_Stars hide your fires, these are my desires_

_And I won't give them up to you this time and so,_

_I'll be found with my stake stuck in this ground_

_Marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul_

_Hide your fires, these here are my desires_

_And I won't give them up to you this time around _

_And so I'll be found with my stake stuck in this ground_

_Marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul_

_And you, you've gone too far this time. _

_You had neither reason nor rhyme_

_With which to take this soul that is so rightfully mine. _

"That was amazing," Hannah gushed before she clapped her hands over her mouth and resumed staring at her knees.

"Who's it by?" Bailey asked.

"Erm…they're called Mumford and Sons," I said.

"I've never heard of them," she replied, clearly getting ready to dismiss them as fictional because they didn't exist in her universe.

"Well, they're a Muggle band," Rian said with a shrug. "I think they're from London or something."

"Oh," Bailey said. "Well, that would explain it."

"Explain what?" I asked in a dark voice.

"Why they weren't very good," she said with a shrug. I saw Hannah and Victoire exchange indecipherable looks.

I smiled calmly at Bailey. "Get the fuck out of our compartment," I said.

"Excuse me?" Bailey asked, blinking in a very taken aback manner.

"I said get the fuck out of our compartment," I repeated, a slight tone of irrational anger slipping into my voice although the smile didn't fade.

She gave me an affronted look and stood up, tossing her hair indignantly. "Come on," she commanded, stalking out of the compartment.

Hannah jumped up immediately and followed her out. Victoire took a moment longer.

"What are you doing, Vicky?" I asked quietly.

Maybe it was because I called her Vicky, but all she did was give me an annoyed look before she left after Bailey and Hannah.

"Murder is still illegal right?" Rian asked after a moment.

"Yup," I replied glumly. "Although maybe if we gave reasonable justification in the form of baseless discrimination against Muggles they wouldn't charge us."

Adrian was silent for a long moment while Rian and I fumed.

"Why would the pug-faced girl be mean to people?" he asked finally.

"Because sometimes people are bitches," Rian replied, ruffling his hair.

"Yeah, but she's not pretty so no one's going to like her ever if she's mean," Adrian said, still looking confused. I laughed and went back to playing my guitar.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"Marks," Harry said before he even said hi. I handed him my end of term scores and he perused them quickly, then smiled and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "See, I knew you could do it."

"I'm very sorry that I got distracted last term," I said. "Can we go quickly?"

"We're giving Victoire a ride," Harry replied.

I groaned in exasperation and scuffed my shoe on the ground while we waited for Victoire to show up. Eventually, she appeared, thankfully without Bailey or Hannah in the immediate vicinity.

"Hi Uncle Harry," she said, hugging him with one arm since the other was wrapped around her very happy looking fox. Tentatively, I reached out to scratch his ears, but he growled at me and I retracted my hand.

"Shall we?" Harry asked, leading us off the platform towards the car. I jumped into the front seat before Victoire could say anything and was buckled in and ready to go before Harry had even opened his door.

He gave me a suspicious look and took Victoire's bag so he could toss it in the boot.

"Eager to get home?" he asked, climbing into the front seat and starting the car.

"Eager to get away from Victoire's 'friends,'" I replied, throwing air-quotes around the word friend. Harry raised his eyebrow.

"Not everyone can make friends as easily as you can, Teddy," Victoire mumbled, stroking her fox's head and staring at the floor.

Harry glanced sideways at me and then at Victoire in the rear mirror.

"It's not like you've ever had to sit alone in the Great Hall," Victoire continued. "Or on the train."

"No one sits alone on the train," I said, giving her a disbelieving look.

Inexplicably, her eyes brimmed with tears and her face turned red and she went back to staring at the floor. I rolled my eyes and stared out the window with my foot on the dash.

"Foot. Dash," Harry said, giving me a disapproving look.

I dropped it and chewed on my thumb instead.

"So tell me about your friends, Victoire," Harry requested, smiling at her in the rear-view mirror.

"I've only got two," she said quietly. "Bailey and Hannah."

"Well that's alright." He sounded kind about it. "I only had two friends for a very long time as well."

"Bailey hates Muggles and everything they touch," I supplied.

"Sorry, what?" Harry asked, his voice suddenly sharp.

"She doesn't _hate_ them," Victoire argued. "She just doesn't understand since she's pureblood."

"So are you," I pointed out.

"I am not!" she insisted.

"No, right, you're one eight Veela," I said with an eye-roll. "I want to see Bailey sit through Muggle Studies without exploding. I think Professor Appleby would die. Except, no, I like Professor Appleby. I take it back."

"Victoire, does your friend try and convince other people that Muggles aren't equal?" Harry asked in a very serious tone.

"No, it's not like that," Victoire said. She sounded sort of desperate. "She's just never seen anything Muggle before."

"I dunno," I piped up. "She liked the song I played until I told her it was by a Muggle band."

Victoire opened her mouth to argue and then realised she couldn't and went back to staring at her knees.

"Victoire, I'm pretty sure your parents are going to agree with me on this, but I don't think any of us really want you associating with people who hate Muggles," Harry said gently.

"She's in my dormitory," Victoire protested.

"That doesn't mean you have to talk to her," I pointed out. "I don't talk to either of my dormmates."

Victoire stayed silent in the back of the car.

"Well, what about your friend Hannah?" Harry asked.

"She doesn't have a spine and does whatever Bailey tells her," I said.

"Shut up Teddy," Victoire insisted. "You don't understand."

"Understand what? That you have terrible taste in friends?" I asked.

"Teddy," Harry scolded softly. I huffed and looked back out the window.

Ginny was happy to see me and Victoire was really happy to get in the Floo and head back to her house. Harry was really insistent on questioning me about Victoire's friends and I realised belatedly that he was the head of the auror department and was trying to figure out if Bailey's family were Death Eaters. At that point, I felt sort of bad except that she was a stuck up bitch and whatever I said about Hannah not having a spine, Victoire was almost as bad.

"How's band practice going?" Ginny asked over dinner.

"Great," I replied. "We can play a few songs already and we're working on coming up with our own but we don't really have any inspiration yet."

"Well that's a nice start," she said. "Any girls on the horizon?"

"Erm…" I mumbled, starting to blush despite myself. I made sure my metamorphmagusing abilities covered it before it got too bad. All through the term, Tia Thompson had been taking every possible occasion to run into me at random moments, and ask me about my band, and compliment my family's bravery during the war.

"Oh," Harry said with a smile. "Do you have a crush on a girl? Is it Rian?"

"What?" I demanded. "No!"

"No you don't have a crush or no it's not Rian?" Ginny asked.

"No it's not Rian," I replied. "Rian is one of the guys. And she and Logan bicker way too much for that even to be a thing ever, so, no. It's not Rian."

"Who is it?" Ginny asked, sounding very enthusiastic about it.

"I don't even really have a crush on her," I insisted. "She's just got a crush on me."

"Is she pretty?" Harry asked.

"Erm…yeah, I guess kind of," I admitted. "I dunno."

"Do you like girls?" Ginny asked.

"Ginny," Harry said with a slightly annoyed look.

"What? It's a valid question," she replied. "Most of the time we really weren't sure about Percy, no matter if he had a girlfriend. I mean, now we know he's got laid at least twice but-"

"What's laid?" James asked.

Harry glared at Ginny. "See, now we have to explain," he said.

"No we don't," Ginny said. "Watch." She turned to six-year-old James. "We'll tell you when you're older."

"But I want to know _now_!" James insisted. Al looked up from his seat.

"What?" he asked.

"Hey James," Ginny said. "There are biscuits on the counter."

It was instantaneous. James slid out of his chair and Al chased after him and any talk about the owls and snitches was forgotten.

"I do like girls," I assured her. "I just – I dunno. Am I supposed to like girls that way yet? What do you even do with them?"

"When you're thirteen?" Ginny asked. She shrugged. "Hold hands?"

I considered this idea for a moment and realised I really wouldn't mind holding Tia's hand. She had sort of nice hands, now that I thought about it. They were small and looked soft unlike mine, which had got terribly calloused from my guitar strings.

"How old were you when you had your first boyfriend?" I asked.

"My first boyfriend? Erm…fourteen," she said. Harry glowered. "But I went to a dance when I was thirteen."

Harry kept glowering and grumbled to himself.

"My darling husband didn't have his first real girlfriend until he was sixteen," Ginny said. "Although he did date a girl in fifth year for about a month, sort of."

She looked like she was about to laugh, but Harry looked rather put out.

"Who was his first girlfriend?" I asked.

Ginny smiled. "Me," she said, winking at him across the table.

I wanted to ask about their first kisses but wasn't quite sure how. Ginny seemed to understand, however, without my saying anything.

"The trollop he dated was also the first girl he kissed," Ginny said. "He was fifteen."

"Thanks, Gin," Harry said, taking a deep drink from his beer bottle.

I did my best not to laugh at him. "What about you?" I asked.

"I was thirteen when I had my first kiss," she said with a shrug.

"Wait, what?" Harry asked. Apparently this was news.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "It wasn't even a real proper kiss," she assured him. "I just kissed Neville goodnight on the way back from the Yule Ball."

Harry's jaw dropped comically. "_Neville Longbottom_ snogged a girl before I did?"

"Honestly Harry, we didn't snog," Ginny said dismissively. "I saved snogging until fourth year."

He kept glowering and wouldn't be dissuaded.

"So who's this girl, Teddy?" Ginny asked.

"Her name's Tia," I said. "Well, Celestia technically, but she goes by Tia."

"What house is she in?" Ginny asked.

"Ravenclaw," I replied. "Like me. She's sort of the only person in my year and house that I've talked to."

"But who do you hang out with at Quidditch games?" Harry asked. "When you're not playing, of course."

"Whichever of Rian, Tom, and Logan aren't playing," I replied. "Or when Gryffindor and Slytherin are playing each other, I hang out with Adrian."

"Who?" Ginny asked.

"Rian's little brother," I explained.

"What about Victoire?" Ginny asked.

"What about her?" I replied.

"You two don't ever talk to each other?" she asked, sounding concerned.

"Why would we?" I asked. Ginny didn't seem to have a good answer so she let it drop.

OOooOOooOOooOO

Christmas passed quickly and then suddenly we were back at school. I sat down at dinner the first night back with Rian and Adrian while we waited for Tom and Logan to show up. They did eventually, but they brought with them a gaggle of first years from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

"Hey guys," Tom said, sitting down next to me, high-fiving Rian, and flicking Adrian in the side of the head by way of greeting.

"Who are your new friends?" Rian asked cautiously, nodding at the first years.

"Erm, this is Nick," Logan introduced, pointing at a short, short haired first year boy in a Ravenclaw tie. "And Michael." A gangly, wide-eyed Gryffindor. "David." Stocky, gigantic afro of hair despite being whiter than Tom and Logan. "And Katelyn."

Katelyn was tiny in every way and had dark brown hair and brown eyes and was probably less than five feet tall.

"We were all stuck here at Christmas together and we were the only six people here," Katelyn explained. "Who are you guys?"

"I'm Teddy, this is Rian, and Adrian," I said. "So, wait, you're in Victoire's dormitory aren't you."

Katelyn rolled her eyes. "You mean the Executive Suite of Queen Bailey and her disciples?"

"That's the one," I agreed. "I'm sorry."

"At least you don't know Tori and Ellie as well," Katelyn said. "Because oh my god it's awful. Why d'you ask about Victoire?"

"They grew up together," Rian explained.

Katelyn shrugged. "She's fine I guess, but she doesn't stick up for herself," she said. She took a bite of some of Michael's dinner and then considered for a moment. I noticed that she had a giant plate of food that probably weighed more than she did. "Well, no, she did stick up for herself once. And now Tori and Ellie hate her and tend to steal her stuff when we're in the showers."

I was suddenly stricken by the impression that I was a terrible human being. But it passed quickly and I moved on.

"Why the hell do girls do that sort of shit to each other?" Tom demanded, looking between Rian and Katelyn like one of them might have an explanation.

"Beats me," Rian said with a shrug.

"You jack my shit all the time," Logan said, glaring at him.

"Yeah, but not to be mean," Tom pointed out.

"Hey, so how did the Honey Badger thing work out?" I asked.

"You'll see," Logan assured me.

And I did see. The next morning at breakfast, every time a Hufflepuff looked at a piece of parchment, a voice would start up saying, "Honey badger don't care. Honey badger don't give a shit. It just takes what it wants. Oh look, it's eating a cobra. Oh look it runs backwards."

Fortunately, all the Hufflepuffs thought this was hilarious. From everything my gran had ever told me about my mum, I was pretty confident she would have found it funny as well. Professor Appleby even gave Tom and Logan extra credit in Muggle Studies for spending time on YouTube.

January passed quite excellently. We beat Hufflepuff at Quidditch even if we lost to Slytherin.

Then one day I was sitting in Charms alone because Rian had the flu and Tom and Logan had ducked off to the toilet. While I waited for them to come back, Tia walked up shyly and sat down next to me. She didn't say anything, just sat there. Sat there and blushed when I looked at her.

Tom and Logan eventually showed up and sat down next to me with suspicious looks at Tia.

"What happened?" Logan whispered.

"I dunno," I whispered back. "She just sat down."

Class passed normally except for the fact I was hyperaware of Tia sitting beside me. She didn't say anything to me until the very end of class when she scooped up all her books and notes, burned bright red, and said, "You have nice handwriting."

Then she turned and ran out of the room.

"Erm…what?" Tom asked as the three of us stared after her in confusion.

"I don't even…" I mumbled.

"I have an idea for a song," Logan said.

He didn't let any of us see it for about a month while he fine-tuned the lyrics and the music parts that he would want us to play. He admitted that Tom and I knew a lot more about guitars than he did and that Rian knew more about drums, but he eventually came back with a general idea.

"I like it," Rian said when he finally showed us.

"Yeah me too," Tom agreed.

"We could try to play it," Logan suggested, suddenly bashful.

The rest of us nodded in agreement and set to work trying to figure out how we would do it. Eventually we got to a point where we were happy with it, and started to play.

_Boys speak in rhythm and girls in code._

_Do doo do doo, do doo do doo._

_Tell it to me straight, give it to me now_

_Face forward, face forward_

We had an instrumental break and then repeated the opening. It was coming along quite nicely.

_Speak in foreign language, nothing I can translate_

_You speak in foreign language, nothing I can dictate_

_You speak in foreign language._

_Boys speak in rhythm and girls just lie._

_Tell me how you feel, come out of the dark_

_And we can head back home and I'll know where to start._

_Speaking foreign language, nothing I can translate_

_You speak in foreign language, nothing I can dictate._

_You speak in foreign language._

_Nothing I can translate, you're speaking foreign language. _

_Where did we go wrong? We need medication for this miscommunication._

_Where did we go wrong? Our conversation's weakened, _

_Conversation's weakened. _

_Boys speak in rhythm and girls in code. _

_Do doo do doo. Do doo do doo._

_Boys speak in rhythm and girls just lie._

"So what inspired that?" Rian asked when we had played it a few times.

"Your entire gender being bloody opaque," Logan replied.

"Hey!" Rian insisted. "I'm not opaque!"

"Just sort of the colour of your eyes, really," I said.

Rian huffed at us and rolled her eyes. "Alright, how's this for opaque. Teddy, Tia would really like it if you would ask her to Hogsmead. Tom, I think every single girl you've talked to this year is in love with you, except for me because I don't count. Logan – actually, I don't have anything for you right now, but give me a bit and I'll bring you some paint thinner."

The three of us shuffled our feet awkwardly.

"But it was a good song, and it's a fun starting place," she said. "Also, I'm starving. Let's go for food."

"Yeah," the three of us agreed, following after her with sheepishness in our eyes.

The moment we opened the door to our practice room, however, Rian ran straight into the person standing on the other side of the door.

"I trusted you!" the girl, quickly identified as Tia, exclaimed.

"It's fine," Rian assured her with a flippant sidestep. She walked out into the hallway and dragged Tom and Logan with her, leaving me alone with Tia. She was bright red in the face and looked mortified.

"Erm, hi," I said. She just kept staring at me with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I – I was just walking by and heard you guys playing and thought I'd stick around and l-listen," she explained, her voice shaking slightly. She stopped staring at me and instead went to stare at her feet.

"Yeah, we should work on the soundproofing spells," I said, scratching the back of my head awkwardly.

"No!" she insisted, her head snapping up. "Erm, sorry, I just – if you soundproofed the room no one would be able to hear you play and – and I should go."

She turned and looked like she was about to run away screaming and never talk to me again, but I grabbed her elbow.

"Wait," I said. "Do you want to go to Hogsmead with me?"

Her face lit up. "Really? You're not just asking me because Rian told you I wanted to go to Hogsmead with you are you?"

I reasoned my way through her sentence and came to the conclusion it was partly true, but then again, I had liked Ginny's proposition of holding Tia's hand.

"No, I actually want to go to Hogsmead with you," I said.

"Okay!" she exclaimed, sounding very enthusiastic about the idea. "I suppose I'll see you next Saturday then?"

"Or, you know, in class…" I pointed out.

She blushed. "Oh, right," she said. "Class." She giggled to herself, smiled at me, and then ran away.

In that moment I decided Logan had been right in his song. Girls really did speak a foreign language.

**Review!**


	9. More Like Lord of the Flies

**A/N: Hey everyone! So I recently noticed (or remembered to notice) my lack of cover art. If any of you are particularly talented at these things, feel free to let me know. I would be very grateful. Speaking of gratitude, thanks for reviewing: RZZMG, Tom, Blood and Dark Chocolate, Prunella7, Sarnia Nereid, Already There, and melancholicmermaid. You guys are awesome!**

**Disclaimer: I didn't borrow anyone's song lyrics this time! Wait, that's not a disclaimer. erm...anyway...**

Chapter Eight – More like Lord of the Flies

(Victoire)

When I got back from Christmas, I lent Hannah my copy of _The Golden Compass._ She came back a week later and asked if I had the second one. I had the foresight to bring the second and third books with me and by the end of January, she had read all three of them and loved them.

"And that song Teddy Lupin played on the train was pretty good," she said while we studied in the common room. Bailey was off doing extra credit for Professor Davies, so we were free to talk about anything we wanted. "And he's sort of cute."

"He's not cute," I replied. "He's mean and annoying."

"Yeah, I suppose," she said. I frowned at her, but she was staring at her homework and didn't notice.

"Not everything Muggle is worthless like Bailey says, you know," I said quietly.

She looked up, startled. "I – I know," she replied.

"Then why do you let her tell you that?" I asked. "If you know it's not true."

"You do it too," she said.

I looked down at my parchment, trying not to be mad at myself. At that point, having any friends at all was more important than what those friends were like. I was having an unpleasant enough time being in Gryffindor that I didn't want to add to it by being alone.

When I got home for Christmas, everyone in the family had congratulated me on my sorting and all of my Christmas presents had been red and gold themed, including a little cape for Pan to wear if he went out in the snow. When I pointed out he was a fox and had a very functional fur coat of his own, Uncle Charlie had just laughed, caught Pan, and clipped the red and gold cape onto his collar. It clashed terribly with his red fur.

At the moment, he was curled up in a ball next to me on the sofa with his little nose stuffed against my leg. Hannah's Persian cat was sprawled out on the sofa next to him, as was the fat calico who lived in our dorm. Without warning, Katelyn Connors appeared next to my sofa.

"Erm, hi," I said, startling Pan. He stood up and nestled closer before he curled back up into a ball with his nose tucked under his tail.

"Hi," Katelyn replied, scooping up the calico. The cat was almost half as big as Katelyn. She didn't say anything else to me or Hannah, just whisked her cat off up the stairs to the dormitory.

"Do you suppose she has friends?" Hannah asked after a moment.

I thought back to the Quidditch game, when she had been sitting with David Davenport, Michael Harvey, and Nicholas Heller. "I think so," I said. "Just not any of us."

Hannah nodded as though this was acceptable and went back to her homework.

Bailey only got worse from thereon out. Even the slightest amount of dissention in the ranks was treated as treason. Any time someone contradicted her in class, she would glare at them for a very long time until she came up with a perfectly flawless circular argument for why they were wrong and she was actually right. She had a talent that was unmatched by anyone I had ever seen including my Aunt Hermione. She was also more stubborn than most of the people in my family, which was saying something. And the worst part was, she was my best friend. If we just talked about our own writing, we were good. She didn't like to put anything fantastical in her writing since it was frivolous and on the list of things Not to Do by Bailey Noonan. There was no point in speculating on impossible things according to Bailey. I didn't feel like telling her that my latest story idea was about a girl who finds out she's actually a fairy from a different alternate universe since I was one hundred percent convinced she would say it was silly and I should stick to what I know, and also, fairies aren't intelligent and tend to just get irritated with people since they can't actually communicate with humans.

It was halfway to Easter when I finally couldn't take it anymore.

"It's not like they've done anything good for the world," Bailey said dismissively, referring, of course, to Muggles. We had been talking about literature and human history.

"Actually, Muggle books are my favourite," I said before I lost my nerve and looked back down at my Herbology homework.

"You just haven't read any good Wizarding ones then," Bailey informed me. "Things like Isabelle Hexman's French dramas that take place at Beauxbatons, or Rowling's history of the Second Wizarding War, or Matthew Horton's American tragedies or-"

"All of them, actually," I interrupted. She looked so shocked that she actually fell silent. "I've read all of them. And I've read Lewis Carroll's _Wonderland_ books-"

"He was a Muggle," Bailey said dismissively.

"Actually, he was in Ravenclaw," I replied. "And I like all of those books, except for Rowling's histories because they creep me out since they're about my family, but I still prefer Muggle authors because their sense of wonder at the way the world works and the magic they find in things makes it worth reading. I don't think you've ever read a Muggle book, have you?"

She looked completely flabbergasted and I realised it was the longest I had spoken since arriving at Hogwarts in September.

"And you know what else is excellent? Films. The thing is, I think you'd actually like them but you've got your prejudice on too tight to even see that there's something besides your own damn viewpoint," I snapped. I slammed my textbook shut and stood up. "You can't even admit that there are other opinions that might be just as valid as yours, and since we have different opinions, I'll just save you the trouble of being friends with me."

I turned on my heel and ran up the stairs to the dormitory, which was blissfully empty, before I collapsed on my bed and shut the curtains. Pan jumped up onto my bed and curled up on my chest in a very warm ball. I was pretty sure I was going to regret my conversation the next day when I didn't have any friends and had to eat alone in the Great Hall. But I realised as I lay there that that was going to be the only reason I regretted it. I didn't really want anything to do with Bailey. If she was going to bring up Rowling's histories, then I was going to be forced to remember that my entire family had fought for the good guys in the war with the goal of stopping persecution against Muggles and Muggleborns.

Miraculously, I started to feel a little better about it. Ellie and Tori already hated me, Katelyn was indifferent to me, Hannah sort of liked me as far as I could tell, although that would probably change when Bailey told her she couldn't be friends with me anymore. I could stand universal hatred. It was just going to suck a bit.

I sighed, scratched Pan's ears, and then pulled out my notebook and started writing.

OOooOOooOOooOO

I finished the first draft of my novel by the end of May. It was a hundred handwritten pages and I was very proud of it, but not quite proud enough to let anyone see it. I figured I would tell my dad about it when I got home from the summer and he could tell me if it was any good. A few weeks before the end of school – I hadn't talked to anyone aside from answering questions in class since the end of March when I had broken up with Bailey so to speak – I cornered Hannah in the common room.

"I'm not really supposed to talk to you," she mumbled, scratching her cat behind the ears.

I sighed and sat down across from her. "I just had a book I thought you would like," I said, sliding her a copy of _The Hunger Games. _She picked it up and read the back very quickly.

"Thank you," she mumbled, setting it on top of her textbooks.

I stood up and took a step away from her before I stopped myself.

"Look," I said. "I don't really care if you talk to me again. I mean, it would be nice since you seem like a nice person most of the time, but whatever. I don't want you to just agree with me for any reason, but I really wish you would tell Bailey what you actually think. Whatever you think. Even if you agree with her, just…agree with her because you actually believe what you're saying, not just because she says it."

She didn't look up from petting her cat and I went back to the dormitory so I could re-read my novel.

A week later, I was lying in bed waiting for the Quidditch game to start. Tori and Ellie had already gone down so they could ogle Tom. Katelyn had left much earlier. I had already put on my shoes and was taking a moment to lie there petting Pan with my curtains closed, so it was sort of understandable that no one would think I was in the room.

"What are you reading?" Bailey asked in a sharp voice.

"Erm…it's called the _Hunger Games_," Hannah replied in her standard quiet voice.

"It's a Muggle book?" Bailey demanded.

"Yeah," Hannah admitted.

"Eugh," Bailey replied. "It's like you don't listen to anything I say."

"I listen," Hannah said. "I just don't necessarily agree."

I could almost hear Bailey's jaw drop. "_You've_ been spending too much time with _Victoire_," she accused.

"Maybe she's not so bad," Hannah replied. Bailey didn't say anything, but after a moment, I heard the door slam. Cautiously, I peeked out from between the hangings on the end of my bed to see Hannah still lying on her bed reading, entirely engrossed in the book.

"Erm…" I said softly. Hannah didn't look up.

"I'm sorry I didn't talk to you the past two months," she said. Then her eyes went wide. "Oh Merlin but they can't!"

"Can't what?" I asked cautiously.

"They can't change the rules again! They can't kill Peeta – oh," she said. She relaxed. "Okay. Well, that's not going to end well."

"No not really," I agreed. She kept reading for a moment. "Erm…are we friends?"

"I don't really want to be friends with Ellie or Tori and I'm pretty sure Bailey's done with me, so I hope so," she replied like something rather revolutionary hadn't just happened.

"Then do you maybe want to go down to the Quidditch game with me?" I asked.

"Sure," she said, closing the book and standing up. She gave me a small smile and we ran out of the room.

We stopped by the Great Hall and grabbed a few pieces of toast with some marmalade in my case, marmite in her case. As we walked down to the Quidditch pitch, she took a huge bite of her toast and then smiled bigger than I had seen since September.

"What?" I asked.

"Bailey doesn't approve of marmite," she explained. I started laughing, and then she started laughing, and we were in hysterics by the time we got to the pitch. We found ourselves seats near Adrian Calloway who was sitting with Logan McEwan and kept chewing on our toast.

"Alright trolls and goblins," the announcer said. "Welcome to the final Quidditch game of the season! Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor. As it currently stands, Gryffindor need a hundred and twenty points to beat Ravenclaw in the cup – a hundred and ten to break even, ten more to beat them – so as long as Ravenclaw catch the Snitch before Gryffindor can score anything, they've got this in the bag. But let's be honest here folks, Gryffindor has the delectable Miss Rian Calloway playing Seeker and there's no way in hell she's gonna let any Ravenclaw fool beat her to the – ow, stop it Professor I'll take it back, Merlin already! – anyway, playing for Gryffindor we have Captain O'Brien playing Keeper, Hutch and Olson playing Beater, Remington, O'Leary and McEwan playing Chaser and, of course, Calloway as Seeker!"

The Gryffindor team streaked onto the pitch in a blur of scarlet. Hannah jumped off the bench and cheered loudly. A ways away, I saw Bailey glare at her.

"And playing for the bookish, un-sporty, really rather doomed Ravenclaws are Thornton as Keeper, Captain Orzabal and Smith playing Beater, Hornby, Lupin, and Ellison playing Chaser, and Keener as Seeker! Let's see if they have _any _chance against Gryffindor!"

I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Adrian and Logan had each painted one half of their faces blue and red. Logan was even wearing one of the scarlet "McEwan is the Best!" shirts that Ellie and Tori had made. Underneath the statement, he had added in silver "(but the one in Slytherin, not the Gryffindor tosser)."

"So do you think any boys are cute?" Hannah asked me.

"You're taking the whole Bailey thing rather well," I replied, trying not to jinx a good thing.

She shrugged. "I really wanted to stand up to her when you did, but I didn't really want to get in a fight with her," she said. "I wish I had sooner, because this is awesome. GET THE QUAFFLE – IT'S RIGHT THERE!"

I flinched away instinctively from the very surprisingly loud noise.

"But I'm not really confrontation's biggest fan, which you probably noticed, so I just sort of waited for her to pick a fight," Hannah said, resuming normal conversation as though nothing had happened. I decided in that instant that I really liked her. "But you didn't answer my question. Are there any boys you think are cute?"

"Erm, not really," I said. I thought about it. "Well, Tom and Logan obviously since they're the best looking guys in the lower years, but I don't like either of them that way. What about you?"

"Well, Tom and Logan obviously," she replied with a smile. "But I dunno, I think David Davenport's kind of cute."

"Really?" I asked. David was sort of a giant and was almost as broad as Katelyn Connors was tall. I figured it would take two of Hannah to add up to the same mass as David, and I didn't really think he was very cute, but I could sort of understand if I thought about it for a while.

"Yeah, I mean, I dunno," she said. "He's just sort of quiet and mysterious I think."

My head was filled with a ridiculous vision of Hannah and David in their twenties sitting in a den together on the same sofa, both of them completely silent while they stared out the window without looking at anything. Even though I didn't necessarily know David, I had a feeling that was the sort of future they might both find pleasant.

"Are you going to ask him to be your boyfriend?" I asked.

Hannah looked shocked at the suggestion. "Me? Ask him? No," she said. "And I'm not allowed to date until I'm sixteen anyways."

"Oh," I replied. "Alright then."

We returned our attention to the pitch in time to see Tom elbow Teddy in the face and steal the Quaffle. Rian dodged a Bludger and swerved into the Ravenclaw Seeker in the process. Keener accidentally rolled on his broom and almost fell off. He managed to stay on but in the meantime, Teddy had managed to reacquire the Quaffle and scored three goals, bringing the score up to 190 – 130 for Ravenclaw. Tom and Teddy spent the rest of the game tailing each other and taking every opportunity to use un-refereed violence to take the Quaffle from the other.

"Aren't they friends?" Hannah asked, watching them play with concern in her eyes.

"I think so," I replied, equally concerned. I didn't even like Teddy, but I was pretty sure he had broken Tom's nose which was going to create an upset in our dormitory while Tori and Ellie cried at the disfigurement of his face.

Teddy scored a few more goals, and so did Ravenclaw's other Chasers. We were set back significantly when Tom got hit by a Bludger and knocked out of gameplay. Once he was out, Ravenclaw got up to 260 points.

"No, they're going to win!" Hannah exclaimed, looking stricken by the idea.

"Wait…" I suggested, pointing at Rian, who had gone into a dive. Then, miraculously, she did a front flip on her broom and came out of it with the Snitch clasped in her hand triumphantly.

"And Gryffindor wins with 290 points!" the announcer said. Then he faltered. "Which, unfortunately, means Ravenclaw wins the Quidditch Cup. Damn it."

Hannah and I sank in our seats a bit.

"Well, at least we won the game," she said finally.

I nodded in agreement and we filtered out of the pitch along with everyone else.

OOooOOooOOooOO

The rest of the year passed very quickly, exams over in a flash. Hannah and I promised to write each other over the summer so we could coordinate a way to watch _The Hunger Games_. And then I was home.

"How was your year?" my mother asked.

I considered my answer for a moment. "The worst year of my life," I replied with a smile before I ran upstairs, dragging my trunk and letting it bang on each stair, Pan trotting after me.

It wasn't long before there was a knock on the door. My dad didn't wait for me to answer before he let himself in. He sat on the foot of my bed and petted Pan while he waited for me to say something.

"I don't want to talk about it," I said.

"Alright," he replied. "Well, I'm here when you do. And your mother wants you to know that she's done kebabs and hasn't undercooked them."

I nodded into my pillow where I was lying on it face down.

"Also," he said, standing up and ducking out of the room. Curiously, I sat up and waited for him to come back. He returned holding a wrapped box. "Happy late birthday."

I took the box from him and realised it was very heavy. I pursed my lips and shoved my glasses up my nose while I peeled off the wrapping paper with meticulous care. The box turned out to be a leather-bound carrying case. I undid the latches and popped the top open. The device inside was shiny and black and had the strangest roller on top, along with something that looked like an inkwell. There were fifty-five buttons on it arranged in a stadium style.

"What is it?" I asked, frowning at it.

"It's a typewriter," he replied. "So you can write more easily. You just put paper in like this-" he grabbed a blank piece of paper from my bedside table and scrolled it into the roller "—and then put your ink, whatever colour you want, in the well-" he grabbed a pot of black ink off my bedside table as well and poured it into the well. It magically sealed itself as soon as it was full. "—and then you just type."

"What if I mess up?" I asked.

"You just tap the place you messed up with your wand and it'll let you fix it," he explained.

"Isn't that against the restriction for underage sorcery?" I asked.

"It falls into the same category as brooms or Teddy's guitar," he replied. "So you're fine."

Slowly, I felt my face split into a grin. "Thanks Dad," I said.

"Did you have any fun at all?" he asked, sounding concerned again.

I shrugged.

"Did you make _any_ friends?" he asked.

"One," I replied. "Just one."

He nodded slowly and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "That's really all you need, kid," he assured me. "Now what do you say we go down to dinner?"

I nodded in agreement and followed him down the stairs.

**Review!**


	10. Go Your Own Way

**A/N: Random things I was unaware of until quite recently: I know the words to every single song on the album Rumors by Fleetwood Mac. Not word perfect, but quite close. Also, when prompted by alcohol, I know every single word/sound to Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard. Because, you know, why the hell not, right? Thanks to: Sarnia Nereid (It's funny, if I type my author's notes in Word, it says 'Sarnia' is correct, but if I type them on FF it says 'Nereid' is spelled correctly), Prunella7 (there's romance for someone in this chapter at least), noodlesandcheese, Blood and Dark Chocolate, Tom, Blue21/Blue21/Blue21, and Charlottembp. You guys are the best. **

**Disclaimer: "Go Your Own Way" belongs to Fleetwood Mac and was not written by Logan McEwan. It was written by Lindsey Buckingham about Stevie Nicks. For those of you unfamiliar with Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham was the guy, Stevie Nicks is the girl. I just thought it was funny…Also, I own nothing related to _The Avengers_. **

Chapter Nine – Go Your Own Way

(Teddy)

"No you hang up," I said. I was sprawled across my bed at three in the morning with my brand new mobile pressed to my ear. Professor Appleby had offered us extra credit if we did something excessively Muggle over the summer, so it had been by consensus that Tom, Logan, Tia and I got mobiles. Rian already had one, what with being Muggleborn and all.

"No you hang up," Tia replied. I could hear her giggle on the other end of the line.

"No, I'm the one who dialled the number, so you're the one who has to hang up," I said.

This had been going on for about ten minutes now.

"Exactly, you started it, so you have to end it," she replied.

"Oh for the love of fuck," Logan exclaimed, jumping up off his kit bed and snatching my mobile out of my hand. "Hi Tia. Bye Tia."

He clicked the end button and handed it back to me. I glowered at him.

"I was talking to her," I insisted.

"No, mate, you were slowly replacing your brain cells with fluff," Tom grumbled, folding his pillow over his face.

"You're just bitter because you're both single," I replied, setting my mobile on my bedside table and finally deigning to climb into bed.

"We're single and happy about it," Tom replied. "There's a difference."

"Speak for yourself," Logan mumbled.

"Are you unhappy with being single?" Tom asked.

"What? No, of course I'm happy about it," Logan replied sounding very defensive. "I just meant you shouldn't assume shit that you have no confirmation of."

"What's her name and would you like us to brainwash her into dating you?" I asked.

"That's how you got Tia, right?" Tom replied.

"Yeah," I agreed. Then I grinned stupidly to myself and started humming under my breath. "So Levente, what's her name?"

"Nothing, fuck you," Logan replied, pulling his blanket over the pillow that was over his head.

Even in the dark, Tom and I managed to exchange looks that suggested ill was about to befall Logan before we jumped out of our respective beds and sat on him.

"Ow, get off!" Logan exclaimed, wiggling underneath us, trying and failing to shake us off.

"Not until you tell us who this girl is that you fancy," Tom replied. We were suddenly both much more awake than we had been previously.

"No one! I don't fancy anyone! Get off me or I'll scream and wake up Mrs Tonks and she'll murder us!" Logan said.

Fear of my gran was well placed in any man's heart, so Tom and I slid off Logan's back and proceeded to sit on the floor next to his head with petulant and annoying stares on our faces. We sat there waiting for him to crack.

"And anyways, she doesn't like me, so it doesn't matter," he mumbled after a long while.

"That's why brain washing and coercion," Tom replied.

"Also, the girls keep mentioning that you two are the best looking in our year, so I'm sure it's rubbish that she doesn't like you," I added.

"Which girls?" Tom asked, frowning at me.

"Erm…Well, Tia doesn't but that's because she's my girlfriend," I replied. "But, I dunno, Kate and she reports that the rest of the girls in her dorm think so as well. I'm pretty sure it's general consensus."

"Even with Rian?" Logan mumbled.

"Holy shit you like Rian?" Tom demanded.

"I did not say that!" Logan exclaimed. Suddenly, I could see it exactly.

"That's why you signed up for divination!" I said.

"Is not," Logan replied, sounding less convincing with each breath.

"Bullshit," Tom said.

"I just find it interesting that one can use cartomancy to predict the future," Logan said stuffily.

"Do any of your future predictions have to do with Rian's underwear and your floor?" Tom asked.

"Fuck you," Logan replied. "I'm going to sleep."

Tom and I exchanged looks again and then grudgingly returned to our own beds. The whole situation was only made more awkward when Rian turned up the next day. Logan turned scarlet when he saw her and then proceeded to inform her that he absolutely loathed her new haircut.

"Good thing I don't give shit about your opinion," she replied, giving him a confused look and then stepping past him into the house and hugging me and Tom in greeting.

"Don't mind him," Tom recommended. "He developed hormones and doesn't remember how to function as a human being."

Logan grumbled something that sounded like "fuck off" and then lurked away so he could avoid Rian.

"I've missed something," she said.

"No," Tom and I replied. After all, solidarity. It was all good and fine for Tom and me to give Logan shit for liking Rian but we couldn't go around telling her about it.

Rian shrugged and set off to the spare room to drop off her bag and her broom. She returned to the entrance long before Logan got over himself, or finished beating off in the toilet, or whatever it was he was up to.

"Is your gran in?" Rian asked me while she re-tied the laces on her Converse.

"No, she's out in the Alley," I replied. "Why?"

"Because we're going to see the film," she said like I was stupid. She turned and took another step into the house. "Oi! Douche-twit! We're leaving!"

Shamefully, Logan lurked back into the hallway so we could walk to the cinema. Rian and Tom took the lead, exchanging theories about who was going to be the new Gryffindor captain when school started again.

"You actually answered to the name douche-twit," I informed Logan.

"Shut up," he replied.

I made a noise that vaguely resembled a whip cracking and he shoved me into a hedge. I was still laughing when we got to the cinema.

"Four for the _Avengers_ please," Rian said to the bloke in the ticket box.

He looked her over with appraising eyes. "Are you sure, love?"

"A hundred percent positive," Rian replied, raising her eyebrow at him. "Can we have our tickets, please?"

He handed the tickets over and I noticed him checking out her arse as we walked into the theatre.

"What a creep," she said with a slight shudder.

"Want me to break his face?" Logan asked. He sounded more than happy to do so.

"No, but thanks," she replied. "Go get popcorn."

"And red vines," Tom added. "And Mars bars and butterfingers and-"

"You're coming with me then if I'm carrying all that," Logan said, dragging him towards the concession stand.

"Oi! Get me popcorn too!" I called after them. Logan flipped me off but I figured that was his way of saying 'yeah, I heard you.'

Rian handed our tickets to the other bloke and we went into the theatre to find seats. We found four eventually and we sat in the middle as our standard order was Logan, Rian, me, Tom. It had got complicated the last few months of school because of Tia, but we managed.

"Who does Logan like?" she asked after we had been sitting for a moment.

"Sorry?" I replied, hoping like hell nothing in my voice betrayed his (lack of) trust.

"I know you know, and I could get him to tell me by playing mind tricks on him, but I'd rather you just told me," she said.

"I don't know," I replied.

"Are you lying to protect him?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Is it Chloe Richardsen and her fabulous tits?" Rian asked, the very faintest trace of bitterness creeping into her voice.

"No," I replied.

"Is it-"

Before she could finish the question, Tom and Logan turned up with our refreshments and sat down in their standard spots.

"Alright, any of you talk during this film, I will murder you," Rian said, taking her popcorn from Logan and taking a bite.

"You really think any of us wouldn't do the same?" Tom asked, unwrapping one of his Mars bars.

When the opening started, we fell dead silent and stared at the screen in wonder. We were barely into the film when Logan, Tom, and I agreed by unspoken consensus that Scarlett Johansen was the best thing to ever happen to skin tight clothing.

In the end when the credits rolled, the four of us just sat there staring at the screen with wide eyes.

"I-" Logan was the first to speak. Wordlessly, Rian reached her hand over and clapped it over his mouth.

Finally, after we sat through the eight minutes of credits, the very last scene of all the characters sitting in the destroyed shawarma restaurant played on the screen.

"Do you suppose there's a shawarma restaurant here?" Tom asked very quietly like he was afraid to disturb the sacred atmosphere of the cinema.

"We have a cinema, a post office, and a Tesco's," I replied just as quietly. "And, well, an Italian restaurant, but it's crap."

"We should find a recipe online and make shawarma," Logan suggested.

Rian nodded in agreement and the four of us continued to sit there in the empty theatre until the ushers came in and kicked us out.

"I think that was the most epic thing I've ever seen," Rian said finally when we were on our way back to my gran's house.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Can I be Iron Man?"

"Dibs on Thor," Tom replied.

"Logan, do you want to be Bruce Banner or Cap?" I asked.

"I think he's automatically qualified for Wolverine," Rian said. "And I want to be Scarlett Johansen."

"Don't you mean Black Widow?" Tom asked, raising his eyebrow at Rian.

"No," Rian replied. "I mean Scarlett Johansen. But as long as we're going with characters from the film, then yeah, Black Widow."

"I kind of wanted to be Hawkeye," Logan said with a shrug.

"Ooh, and we could get you a bow, and I could braid your hair and then we could pretend you were Katniss Everdeen!" Rian exclaimed, before she started outlining her very extensive plan to turn Logan into a girl. Tom and I hung back and let them get ahead for a while. Fortunately, neither of them noticed.

"He admit to it?" I asked.

"No," Tom replied. "Did she say anything?"

"She asked who he likes, but didn't really give any indication if she likes him," I explained. "Although she did sound bitter when she asked if he liked Chloe Richardsen because of her tits."

"That's because Chloe Richardsen is painfully fit and she runs up the stairs in the common room and it's painful," Tom replied. "Everything bounces."

I left him alone in his daydreams for a moment and pulled my mobile out of my pocket to see that Tia had called while we had been in the cinema. I figured Tom was down for the count while he fantasised about Chloe's cleavage, so I called her back.

We talked about the movie, which she hadn't seen, and about our theories of whether or not Logan and Rian liked each other. I was grinning stupidly again by the time we got back to the house.

The rest of the summer passed in relatively the same way. Every so often, we would go to the cinema and either see the _Avengers_ again, or one of the other films that had come out recently. We kept all our ticket stubs so we could give them to Professor Appleby as proof of our dedication to Muggle Studies.

The whole time, Rian and Logan bickered, and they went half of August without talking to each other despite the fact all four of us were staying in my gran's house.

"So they're snogging then?" Gran asked while Tom and I helped her make dinner. Rian and Logan had whisked themselves off to opposite ends of the house so they wouldn't have to look at each other. The only times we could get them in the same room was if we were playing a song, or having a Quidditch match.

"Erm, I doubt it," Tom replied.

"You don't have to be so awkward about it, Gabriel," Gran said. "I was fourteen once too, you know. In the sixties."

Tom and I winced and recoiled slightly.

"Honestly, Teddy, your mother came from somewhere," she said with an eye roll.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to think about it!" I insisted.

Gran shrugged. "I wasn't the only one in the family to get in trouble for various…acts…while at Hogwarts," she said. "You should've known my cousin, Sirius Black. I think you would've liked him. I think he would have been your first cousin twice removed. He was your father's best friend at any rate."

"Gran, way too much information thanks," I said.

"I suppose Harry's already given you the owls and the snitches talk?" she asked, calmly stirring the soup.

"The moment I got off the train and told him I have a girlfriend," I replied. She nodded.

"And you, Mr McEwan? Someone's lectured you about it?" she asked.

"Erm…" Tom said. "Well, it was sort of by accident, but Logan and I were in the car with them when Harry gave Teddy the lecture."

"Good," Gran replied. "Edward, I am not to be a great-grandmother. At least not for ten years."

Tom and I exchanged hopelessly disturbed looks and slunk out of the kitchen before she could keep talking.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"No, it was bad enough getting The Talk from _the_ Harry Potter," Tom explained while we were on the train the next morning. "Try having Andromeda Tonks, aged 57, tell you she got caught participating in 'acts' while at Hogwarts."

"I'd rather not, thanks," Rian replied, looking deeply disturbed.

"Yeah, that's what we said, and then we ran away," I said. Logan was stuffed in the corner of the compartment scratching something onto a roll of parchment. "Oi, what're you working on?"

"Song," he replied shortly.

"Let's hear it then," Rian said.

"It's not done yet," he said, dipping his quill into the ink with more force than strictly necessary.

We were halfway to Hogwarts when Tia slid open the door to the compartment. She had got tan over the summer and her brown hair had got lighter and her boobs had got bigger. I grinned at her and she grinned back.

"Hey Tia," Rian said, budging aside so Tia could sit next to me. I automatically wrapped my arm around her shoulders and she leaned against me.

"Hi," she said, smiling up at me softly.

"Hi," I replied, smiling down at her.

"Hi," she said.

"H-" I started.

"Nope," Tom said, chucking a balled up sock at us. "If you're going to be sappy, you have to leave."

Tia and I gave him a half-hearted glare and stood up. I held her hand as we stepped out into the corridor. Once we were standing, it was easier to give her a proper hug hello.

"You got taller," she accused. I was a little too aware of the fact her boobs had got bigger now that they were pressed against my chest. I mentally willed myself not to say anything about it.

"You got prettier," I replied. She blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear with a bashful grin.

"Teddy," she said quietly, almost like she meant to scold me for saying she was pretty.

"I missed you this summer," I replied, hugging her again. She smiled against my chest and I was hyperaware of everything about her. We broke apart again and I kept my hands on the tops of her arms. She didn't move hers from my waist so very cautiously, ignoring the adrenaline coursing through me, I leaned down and pressed my mouth to hers. She gasped slightly, but didn't move.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"

We let go of each other and stepped apart, both of us blushing bright, Weasley red. It stretched all the way to my hair and wouldn't be stopped. Normally, my metamorphmagusing abilities work in favour of hiding a blush, but in this instance, they did exactly the opposite.

"Erm – I'll just – everything thanks," I replied, addressing my toes and noticing with dismay that all the skin on my hands and presumably the rest of my body had turned a fresh, boiled red.

"Here you go then," the trolley witch said, handing me all of my purchases. She had to hand some of them to Tia as well, and then she rolled her trolley off leaving the two of us awkwardly in the corridor.

Tia and I glanced at each other and smiled awkwardly before we ducked back into the compartment.

"Teddy, what've you done to your skin?" Rian asked.

"Not everything is your business, Rian," I replied as haughtily as I could before I sat down in my previous seat and took the most dignified bite I could out of my pumpkin pastie.

"What? Did the trolley witch catch you snogging or something?" Tom asked.

When Tia and I turned bright red again, Tom howled with laughter. He didn't shut up until I bounced a chocolate frog off his forehead.

OOooOOooOOooOO

It was only Sunday that Logan announced he was done with the song. Since September first had been Saturday, we hadn't even had classes yet. Tom, Rian, and I read it over quickly and while Tom and I congratulated him on it being good, Rian fell completely silent.

"Can we practice it?" Logan asked, sounding sort of bashful.

"Of course," Tom said.

Tom and I played out the introduction and then started to sing.

_Lovin' you isn't the right thing to do_

_How can I ever change things that I feel?_

_If I could, baby I'd give you my world._

_How can I when you won't take it from me?_

_You can go your own way, go your own way_

_You can call it another lonely day _

_You can go your own way, go your own way_

_Tell me why everything turned around_

_Packing up, shacking up's all you want to do_

_If I could, maybe I'd give you my world_

_Open up, everything's waiting for you._

_You can go your own way, go your own way._

_You can call it another lonely day._

_You can go your own way, go your own way_

_You can go your own way, go your own way_

_You can call it another lonely day, another lonely day_

_You can go your own way, go your own way_

_You can call it another lonely day_

It took us a while to iron out the instrumental parts, but when we did, I was personally more fond of it than Foreign Language.

"So what was your inspiration for that?" I asked while we locked up the room after we were done playing.

"I dunno, just sort of came to me," Logan replied, sounding awkward.

"So it's not about anyone in particular?" Tom asked.

"Psh, no," Logan said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Honestly, Teddy's the one with the girlfriend not me."

"Speaking of which, I'll see you lot later," I said, lifting my hand in salutation before I ran off to the Ravenclaw common room.

I lifted the knocker on the door and the soothing woman's voice spoke. "What is the shortest horror story ever told?"

I considered for a moment. "The last man on earth sat alone in his house. There was a knock on the door."

The door swung open and I stepped inside to discover Tia curled up in a ball on one of the sofas reading a book. The rest of the common room was blissfully empty.

"Hey," I said, sitting down next to her and sliding my arm around her shoulders. She leaned against me but kept reading her book. I brushed her hair off her face and tucked it behind her ears. She smiled but didn't look up from her reading. She was wrapped in an oversized sweater that I realised belatedly was mine. I kissed the side of her head and she turned pink, but kept smiling. I kissed her cheek once or twice and accidentally caught the corner of her mouth. It was like a jolt of electricity. She finally turned her head to look at me and I kissed her properly. Without breaking the kiss, she folded the corner of the page in her book and set it on the table. She ran her hands through my hair and kept kissing me. I didn't notice that we were falling over sideways until our legs were tangled together and I was lying on top of her on the sofa. Very tentatively, her lips opened slightly and I felt the tip of her tongue brush across my bottom lip.

In none of the talks any of my family members had given me did one of them mention that snogging is kind of one of the best things ever to happen. I don't know. Maybe they all took it for granted, or maybe things that happen after snogging are better, but I couldn't really imagine it at the moment.

My tongue was almost entirely in her mouth when someone cleared their throat from behind us.

"Five points from Ravenclaw," one of the prefects said. "For unnecessary public displays of affection."

"It wasn't public when we started," I replied, noticing that Tia's hair was sort of mussed and her lips were slightly swollen. When I realised it was my doing, something akin to pride swelled in my chest.

"Be that as it may, the common room is not the appropriate place for snogging," the prefect said.

"Would you prefer we did it in our dormitories entirely unsupervised?" Tia asked. The prefect blinked owlishly at her and Tia giggled before she extricated herself from me on the sofa, grabbed her book and my hand, and pulled me up the stairs to my dormitory. I gave the prefect a thumbs up sign and he glowered and then Tia shut the door behind us.

**Review!**


	11. The Phoenix

**A/N: I am so sorry that this chapter is up so late today. I discovered at 10 pm on Sunday that All Time Low and A Day to Remember (and Pierce the Veil, but I don't really listen to them) were going to be playing in Seattle on Tuesday (yesterday) and so I dragged my roommate to Seattle yesterday and we ended up having to spend the night, and when I got home I had to go straight to work, and when I got off work, I ended up at my dad's house making enchiladas and now this chapter is extremely late. Also, yelling really geeky references at the stage in response to one of the bands propositioning the entire audience is entirely appropriate and necessary at those sorts of concerts. Anyways, thanks for reviewing – noodlesandcheese, Guest, Blood and Dark Chocolate, blue21, Sarnia Nereid, Guest (the same guest, or are there two of you? O.o?) Tom (I remember **_**everything**_ **while drunk. I would so much rather fall asleep), and FairyLightsAndGlitter. You guys are awesome. Also, I have cover art now!**

Chapter Ten – The Phoenix

(Victoire)

"And with your partners you will be brewing this list of potions before the term is out," Professor Greenwood instructed, pointing at the list on the blackboard.

"Erm, Professor?" Bailey asked, raising her hand and failing to wait until called upon to ask her question. "What partners?"

"Thank you, Miss Noonan," Greenwood replied. "I will be giving you your partner assignments in a moment. I thought we'd do it the fun way and pick names out of a hat."

She smiled like this was going to be a good thing, but Hannah and I glanced at each other in mild horror. There were around thirty people in our potions class, which meant we had a chance of getting paired with Bailey, Ellie, or Tori if it was left up to random chance.

"Erm, Professor Greenwood?" one of the boys in the class asked. He was gangly and I recognised him as Michael Harvey. "What if we're incompatible with our partner?"

"I trust you to work through it like the mature young adults you are," she replied. "Alright, let's see here…"

She reached into the cauldron on her desk and pulled out a scrap of parchment. "Bailey Noonan will be paired with…" She dug through for another name. "Ellie Morris."

Hannah and I let out sighs of relief that, fortunately, Bailey didn't hear.

"David Davenport and…Tori Brandon," Greenwood announced.

Hannah slumped slightly in her seat, but I cheered her up by reminding her it meant we didn't have to deal with Tori either.

"Hannah Spacey and…Michael Harvey," Greenwood said. "Mr Harvey, I trust you can act compatibly with Miss Spacey?"

"Yes Professor," Michael replied, looking slightly ashamed of himself.

She went through the rest of the class and still hadn't called my name. There were only three people left at the very end. Me, Katelyn Connors, and Nicholas Heller.

"Well, I suppose the three of you will just have to work together," Greenwood said. She gestured at the desk in the very back. "That one's the biggest."

At her instruction, everyone started shuffling around trying to meet up with their partners and get started on the first potion of the term.

At the back of the classroom, I met up with Katelyn and Nicholas. Nicholas was shorter than me, but taller than Kaitlin, and looked vaguely like a chipmunk.

"Hi, I'm Nick," he said, looking awkwardly at me.

"Victoire," I replied.

"So Bailey isn't talking to either you or Hannah now?" Katelyn asked, digging around in the cupboard for the ingredients we needed.

"No, thank Merlin," I replied.

Katelyn smiled. "Good."

"Hannah's the one with glasses, right?" Nick asked.

Katelyn and I stared at him with the exact same bewildered expression on our faces and then pushed our glasses up our respective noses.

"I meant who isn't either of you," Nick elaborated, looking embarrassed.

"Yeah," I said. "Are either of you good at potions?"

"No, I'm sort of rubbish at it," Katelyn replied. "Are you?"

"I'm alright," I mumbled, suddenly embarrassed of the O I had got on my end of year marks. "What about you, Nick?"

"I'm alright," he said in much the same way I had.

"You both got O's, didn't you," Katelyn asked while she flipped through the textbook for the recipe.

"M-maybe," Nick muttered.

I smiled at him a little and he smiled back a little and then we returned to chopping ingredients. It was a double potions class, the worst possible way to start Mondays, but it did mean that afterward we got to go to lunch.

As we were walking out of the dungeons, Hannah and Michael caught up to us. Michael and Nick immediately launched into some Quidditch based conversation which made Katelyn roll her eyes.

"How did you guys do?" I asked Hannah.

"Alright," she replied. Potions wasn't her strong suit, and I wasn't sure how well Michael did at it.

"She's awful," a new voice complained from behind us. Everyone turned to see David Davenport pushing his voluminous hair away from his face with a pained expression. "She's absolutely completely awful."

"Sorry, mate," Michael replied.

"Tori, right?" I asked.

"Yeah," David said. "Aren't you friends with her?"

"Erm, no," I replied. "Absolutely not."

"She called Victoire fat," Katelyn supplied. "Last year."

"You're not fat," Michael and Nick assured me in unison. I blinked, completely unsure what to do with this information. I still sort of thought I was fat, but it was at least comforting that someone else might not think that.

"I could eat an entire hippogriff," Katelyn complained. "Do you suppose Tom's saved any food for the rest of us?"

"Tom McEwan?" I asked.

"Yeah," Katelyn replied as though it was inconsequential.

"Do you two want to eat with us?" Nick asked me, nodding at Hannah so as to include her as well.

"Erm, sure," I replied. Hannah nodded in agreement.

We found ourselves seated at the end of the Hufflepuff table and had been sitting for maybe a minute when Tom, Logan, Teddy, Rian, and a girl I didn't know fell onto the seats next to us.

"They've all gone mad," Logan announced while Tom and Katelyn immediately reached for the same shepherd's pie. Katelyn glared at him and then stabbed him in the hand with her fork before they agreed to cut it in half and go from there.

"Who've gone mad?" Michael asked.

"All the professors," Rian supplied. "All of them."

"Greenwood seemed to be sane still," Nick said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but ours are already ranting about OWLs," Teddy explained. "They're next year."

As the rest of them devolved into loud conversations about what they'd done with their summers – Michael, David, and the fourth year boys spent most of lunch talking about someone called Scarlett Johansen and spandex clothing – Hannah and I sat silently and watched them in confusion. They all had a sort of effortless ease around each other.

"Well, last Christmas, Nick, Michael, David and I got stuck here for the holidays and ended up hanging around with Tom and Logan," Katelyn explained that night while we all got ready for bed. "And we've just sort of been friends since."

"You and Tom seemed pretty friendly," I said, spitting my toothpaste into the sink.

"Eurgh," Katelyn replied. "No."

"At which point every single other girl in first year, our year, third year, and Tom's year wanted to smack you," I mumbled.

"Yeah probably," Katelyn agreed. "But no. He's got gooey eyes over Chloe Richardsen."

"Does he though?" Hannah asked.

Katelyn shrugged. "But then after the holidays were over, we got to be friends with Teddy and Rian as well since the four of them are a package deal."

"Who was the pretty girl sitting with them?" I asked.

"Tia Thompson," Katelyn replied. "Teddy's girlfriend. Hey, Victoire, you wouldn't happen to know Teddy's middle name, would you?"

"Remus, why?" I asked.

She grinned. There was a disproportionate amount of evil in the smile for someone so tiny. "Oh, no reason," she said. "I just like having blackmail."

Hannah and I laughed and we ducked back into the dormitory to discover Bailey, Ellie, and Tori glaring at the three of us. They didn't say anything so we edged around them back to our respective beds. I discovered upon drawing my curtains that Pan was lying stretched out across my bed with Katelyn's calico and Hannah's Persian cat sprawled across him, all three of them purring. They were taking up my entire bed.

"Erm…" I said. Katelyn and Hannah appeared next to me and together we stared down at our pets.

"Come on, Cleo," Katelyn said, scooping up her very fat cat. Cleo reached out a single paw to touch Pan's ear on her way by. Pan whimpered slightly and curled protectively around Hannah's cat.

"No, Pan, she's got to go sleep on her own bed," I said, scratching his ears.

"Are you really talking to your pet fox?" Tori asked, sounding derisive.

Pan growled at her, his hackles rising angrily. Immediately, Tori backed down and retreated to her bed. Hannah scooped up Bubbles, her cat, and returned to her own bed.

It had only been one day into the term and already I was beginning to sense it was going to be a lot better than the previous year.

OOooOOooOOooOO

My good mood continued as Hannah and I got to know everyone better. Now that we were out of Bailey's range, it was a lot easier to make friends with the rest of them. Nick, Katelyn, and I got to be quite close while we worked together in Potions. Katelyn had four younger siblings, all of whom managed to be magical despite the fact they were Muggleborn. Her sister Heather was to start Hogwarts next year, as was Nick's little sister Alyssa. Katelyn's three younger brothers were a set of twins and a loner, Niall. Niall was going to start the same year as Louis and James and Fred and Lucy and Frank Longbottom.

It turned out that Michael and David had known each other their entire lives since they had grown up down the street from each other in Liverpool. They had a strange joke with Tom – whose first name was apparently Gabriel – that together they were halfway to the full Bible. I didn't know what they were talking about, but let it go in favour of laughing along with everyone else.

"So when are you lot going to let us hear you play?" Kate – as she preferred to be called – asked Tom and Rian while the lot of us Gryffindors sat in the common room studying.

"Play what?" Hannah asked.

"They're all in a band together," Michael explained. "But they've never let anyone hear them play before."

"Except for Tia once by accident," Tom amended with a shrug. "And I dunno. Maybe sometime soon. We're working on a new song so…"

"Come on," Kate pleaded. "We have to listen to the lot of you mutter about band practice and it's not polite to not let us listen to your music."

"No one ever asks Victoire what she's typing," Tom pointed out, gesturing sweepingly in my direction. Unlike everyone else, I was sitting in the very corner of the couch with my typewriter in my lap working on my latest story instead of homework.

Michael, David, Kate, Hannah, and Rian turned to give me raised eyebrows and questioning looks. I blushed and stared down at my paper.

"So what's your new song?" I asked, mostly to get them to stop staring at me.

"Well, it's the first one someone besides Logan wrote," Rian explained. "So at least it's not some questionable semi-love song."

Tom rolled his eyes almost imperceptibly. I was pretty sure I was the only one who noticed.

"So who wrote it?" Hannah asked.

"I did," Tom replied, sounding proud of himself. "Erm, well, I suppose we're having practice on Saturday if you lot wanted to come see us play. It'll be good for us to have an audience."

We agreed that it was a plan and then returned to our homework. Pan was very fond of all my new friends, and spent about as much time sprawled in Rian's lap as he did mine. At that moment, he was stretched across Tom's legs and had his head in Rian's lap. They were both petting him absently while they studied their potions books.

Saturday came very quickly and the lot of us filtered into their practice room. Teddy and Tia were snogging in the corner when we walked in and didn't seem to notice that we had shown up until Logan pulled off his shoe and chucked it at the two of them. They jumped and broke apart, wide-eyed with puffy lips.

"Sorry," Tia said, blushing. Teddy didn't blush, but he's never blushed as long as I've known him. I think he can fix it with his metamorphmagus abilities.

"We're going to play for our groupies," Tom explained to Tia. "So you're welcome to hang around."

"We are not groupies, McEwan," Michael replied.

"Right, course you're not," Tom said.

"Why don't you all have a seat while we warm up," Rian suggested, pointing one of her drumsticks at the abandoned desks. They were all nervous, but seemed to be hiding it well. They picked at their instruments for a moment and then started playing.

It had a rather epic feel to begin with, almost like a battle cry. Then Tom started singing.

_Put on your war paint. _

_You are a brick tied to me that's dragging me down_

_Strike a match and I'll burn you to the ground_

_We are the jack-o-lanterns in July setting fire to the sky_

_Here it comes this rising tide so come on_

_Put on your war paint._

_Crosswalks and crossed hearts, hope to dies_

_Silver clouds with grey lining_

Then Teddy and Tom were singing together and they were amazing.

_So we can take the world back from the heart-attacked_

_One maniac at a time we will take it back_

_Time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start_

_So dance alone to the beat of your heart._

Then it was Teddy alone while they rocked out.

_Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like your time is running out?_

_I'm gonna change you like a remix, then I'll raise you like a phoenix_

_Wearing our vintage misery, no, I think it looked a little better on me, _

_I'm gonna change you like a remix, then I'll raise you like a phoenix_

Tom sang the verse alone again.

_Bring home the boys and scrap metal the tanks_

_Get hitched make a career out of robbing banks_

_Because the world is just a teller and we are wearing black masks_

"_You broke our spirit," says the note we pass._

_So we can take the world back from the heart-attacked_

_One maniac at a time we will take it back_

_You know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start_

_So dance alone to the beat of your heart._

_Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like your time is running out?_

_I'm gonna change you like a remix, then I'll raise you like a phoenix_

_Wearing our vintage misery, no, I think it looked a little better on me. _

_I'm gonna change you like a remix, then I'll raise you like a phoenix._

They finished the song and we all burst into applause. It was evident from their relieved smiles that they had been nervous about playing.

"You guys are amazing," Tia gushed, tackling Teddy. He had barely enough time to swing his guitar out of the way before she started kissing him.

Rian and Logan swapped disgusted looks and Rian bounced one of her drumsticks off the back of Teddy's head.

"Oi, you're in public," she informed them. They broke apart sheepishly and Rian rolled her eyes.

"Consider yourselves lucky that you aren't in Ravenclaw," Nick piped up. "They're always snogging in the common room too."

"Not always," Teddy protested, looking too enthusiastic about snogging someone to be upset.

"Always," Nick corrected. Everyone else laughed and whatever unnecessary PDA Teddy and Tia had been partaking in was forgotten.

"Do you guys have a name?" Hannah asked. I noticed that she was sitting next to David, even though both of them seemed to be pretending it wasn't the case.

"Erm, not yet," Logan admitted. "We're having trouble coming up with one."

"Yeah, so if you guys think of something, let us know please," Tom said.

They played us a few more songs and then it was time for dinner, so we broke ranks and went back to the Great Hall. All of dinner, everyone was trying to suggest names for their band, but no one came up with anything convincing. The general consensus was that the worst name we came up with was The Hungry, Hungry Hippogriffs so naturally, it stuck for a while.

"I wish I had a boy," I mumbled a few nights later while Kate, Hannah, and I brushed our teeth.

"Ew, why?" Kate asked.

"I dunno," I replied, blushing slightly. "I suppose it would just be nice to hold hands with someone."

"But then you have to deal with them all the time," Kate pointed out. Hannah stayed silent.

"Tia and Teddy don't seem to mind very much," I said. "They seem quite happy."

"Yeah, but they're weird," Kate said. "I love them both, but they're weird."

We could all agree with that and took ourselves off to bed.

No one ever mentioned the age disparity between the lot of us (us being Hannah, Kate, Nick, Michael, David, and me) and the Hungry, Hungry Hippogriffs until the first Hogsmead weekend. The four of them – and Adrian Calloway and Tia – promised to bring us back things from Honeyduke's and the WWW, and then left.

"This sucks," Kate complained.

"You've never even been to Hogsmead," Nick pointed out.

"So?" Kate asked. "I'd still like to go to Hogsmead someday."

"We get to go next year," Michael said. "And then we can go get Butterbeer with everyone and the world will be a better place."

"Butterbeer?" Kate asked.

The rest of us turned and stared at her in horror. Michael and David were half-blood and had grown up in the Wizarding world just like Hannah. Kate was the only true Muggleborn among us.

"You can't be serious," I said.

"What's Butterbeer?" Kate asked.

"It's the best drink ever!" Nick exclaimed, looking like he wanted to shake her for being stupid.

"But to be fair, none of us have tried alcohol yet," David piped up. It was so rare that he spoke that all of us had to turn and stare at him in shock.

"Well…" I said finally.

"_You've_ tried alcohol?" Michael replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"But you're like, the law abiding one," Nick said. "Why would you have tried alcohol?"

"My mother is French," I explained. "It's not even alcohol really, just I'm allowed wine at dinner at home."

They were all silent for a long moment.

"How is it?" David asked finally.

"Eh," I replied. "I don't really like wine."

They all shook their heads at me in disdain and went back to playing gobstones in the middle of the Hufflepuff table. Since Nick was in a different house we always met in the Great Hall. The school may have been all about trying inter-house unity, but they weren't so into it that we were allowed to bring students from other houses into our common rooms. We all felt bad enough about Nick being our sole Ravenclaw that we agreed to loiter in the Great Hall.

We stayed in the Great Hall so long the first Hogsmead Saturday that we were still there when the fourth years – and Adrian – got back.

"Here you go," Tom said, spilling his entire school bag full of Honeyduke's onto the table. As we all started grabbing for things he shot sparks across our hands. "Wait. The raspberry dark chocolate bar is for Kate."

He dug it out and handed it over.

"The marshmallow and cinnamon milk chocolate is for Hannah," he continued, tossing it to her. "Coconut cream is for Mikey. Espresso, black like your soul, is for David. And then Victoire and Nick, you guys both get salt caramel with milk chocolate."

Nick and I exchanged suspicious looks and snatched our chocolate bars before we all went back to divvying up the remaining sweets.

"You guys are our favourite," Kate informed him. Then she glanced around curiously. "Where're Teddy and Tia?"

Rian rolled her eyes and grabbed a levitating sherbet ball off the table. "They got stuck in Madame Puddifoot's and we left them there."

"What is Madame Puddifoot's?" Michael asked, sounding disturbed by the very concept.

"It's an atrociously awful, fluff filled extravaganza of doilies and lace and syrup and I swear to Merlin she puts amortentia in the coffee," Logan explained, sitting down across from Rian and snatching a sugar quill.

"That's illegal," I replied.

"Yeah, well, so was half the shit your family got up to during the war," Tom pointed out.

I turned red and stared down at the table. That was one nice thing about being invisible or subordinate to someone like Bailey. No one noticed that I was a Weasley and no one felt the need to point it out. I almost preferred it that way, but I decided I liked having friends better. With that in mind, I grabbed a liquorice wand and pretended to curse Tom with it before I took a huge bite. I could handle a few Weasley references if it meant nice friends.

**Review!**


	12. Love Like War

**A/N: In case anyone was wondering, when Teddy sings, he sounds like Alex Gaskarth. Tom sounds like Tim McIlrath, and if you can convince Logan to sing, he sounds like Jeremy McKinnon and is also capable of the scream-sing thing. But most of the time, he cannot be convinced to do so. Thanks for reviewing Blood and Dark Chocolate and Blue21. **

**WARNING – this story is rated M for more of a reason than my stories are usually rated M and this chapter is the beginning of the reason. There will, at some point, actually be real, genuine sex in this story. However, at this point, the characters are fourteen so it's not quite sex. But yeah, there's things in this chapter and if I wasn't such an awkward human being, I wouldn't even put this warning here, but oh well.**

**Disclaimer: the lyrics to "Love Like War" belong to All Time Low (who introduced themselves as, "We are Fuck from Baltimore, Maryland" when I saw them on Tuesday. It was awesome). **

Chapter Eleven – Love Like War

(Teddy)

"I'll miss you over Christmas," Tia mumbled, running her hands down my chest while we sat on my bed.

"I'll miss you too," I replied, leaning forward and kissing her. Kissing is kind of awesome. Like, the most awesome thing to ever happen, really. Especially when tongues get involved and it's all soft and wet and hot and –

"Eurgh, I wish we could just stay here for Christmas," Tia grumbled, wrapping her arms around me and letting us fall over sideways onto my pillows. Ever since the prefect had walked in on us snogging the first day back, it had been an established fact that they pulled bed checks on both of us at midnight and three in the morning. As far as I could tell, they did this to no other couple in the entire house. It was really only relevant because we both wanted to just spend the night together in the most innocent way possible. Not that I'd really complain if it didn't stay innocent, but just getting to sleep with her in my arms would be really pleasant.

"I know," I said, pulling her closer so I could rest my chin on top of her head.

"But no, you've got some massive family and I've got my little brother and we don't get to," she said, picking at the back of my shirt.

"I know," I repeated, sliding my hands from her shoulders down to her hips. She edged closer and our legs ended up in a very undignified braid. She sighed and then reached up and kissed me again. I was more than happy to comply, especially when she grabbed my wrists and used them to slide my hands under the hem of her shirt. Her skin was soft and smooth and warm, although she shivered under my touch. Even though she was covered in gooseflesh, she didn't stop sliding my hands up her stomach. My eyes shot open when she left my hands on her boobs. She let go of my wrists and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, letting me continue to touch her boobs. It was just as good as kissing.

I could have stayed like that forever if it weren't for the growing discomfort in my trousers and the prefect who turned up not five minutes later and glared at us.

"It's midnight," he announced. "Go back to your room, Thompson."

Tia blushed scarlet and extricated herself from me before she ran out of the room. I stayed very dishevelled on my bed while the prefect glared at me.

"Why do you have to keep ruining my fun?" I asked. "Did I do something to you? Do you have a crush on my girlfriend? What is it?"

"Go the fuck to sleep, Lupin," the prefect replied, stalking out of the room.

Kellan and Ethan snickered at me from their beds and I decided it was the perfect time to practice Banishing Charms and smacked them both in the face with the same pillow. They stopped laughing at me and returned to their reading. Trust Ravenclaws to stay up late reading instead of doing something fun like snogging.

The next morning on the train, it was rather convenient because we had so many people stuffed into the same compartment that Tia absolutely _had_ to sit in my lap to conserve space.

"Remind me again why we're going home?" Tom groaned, hitting his head against the back of the seat.

"Because we haven't seen either of our parents in over a year," Logan replied. "I mean, frankly, good riddance, but still."

Tom stared at him for a moment. "Dad didn't tell you did he?"

"Tell me what?" Logan asked, peering up from the table where he was scribbling song lyrics.

"We're going to Budapest," Tom replied. "Not London."

"Okay…" Logan said slowly, looking confused.

"With Dad," Tom added.

"Your parents aren't getting back together, are they?" Kate asked, sounding concerned.

"That's what Dad said," Tom replied. He shuddered briefly. "I give it one month while they shout at each other in Magyar and a Scottish accent so incomprehensible that no one can understand him, and then they'll be back to divorce again."

"You're kidding," Logan said, continuing to stare at Tom in shock and horror. "We're going back to Budapest."

"We're to stay with the grandparents," Tom replied. "So that the parents can have their reconciliation in peace."

"Yeah, or murder each other," Logan said. Tom shrugged.

"So Kate," Tia said, glancing nervously between Tom and Logan and quickly changing the subject. "Why are you sitting here instead of with the rest of the second years?"

"I didn't want to spend the train ride watching Michael and Nick try to out-macho each other," she replied.

"Michael wins," Rian pointed out.

"Obviously, but Nick is stubborn," Kate said with a shrug.

"Why are they trying to out-macho each other?" I asked, playing with the hem of Tia's sweater.

Kate rolled her eyes. "They've both got crushes on Victoire," she said. "Although she's entirely oblivious of course."

"That's adorable," Tia gushed, lacing her fingers through mine and forcing me to hold her. Not that I minded, but I really wanted to touch her boobs again except for the fact we were in public.

"Sure it is," Rian agreed. The girls spent the rest of the trip gossiping about boys while Tom, Logan, Adrian and I exchanged exasperated looks. By the time we got to London, Logan was mostly done with the song he had been working on, Adrian had lit his eyebrows on fire with Exploding Snap cards, and Tom was asleep on the table in a small puddle of his own drool.

"See you all after Christmas," Kate said, waving goodbye to most of us and flicking Tom in the side of the head to wake him up. He jumped wildly and accidentally caught Adrian in the face.

Kate laughed at him and left the compartment. I could see Harry out on the platform waiting for me and looking awkward while people whispered around him.

"I've got to go," I said, sliding Tia off my lap and snogging her.

Tom and Rian pelted us with the rejected Bertie Bott's flavours until we stopped. I grabbed my bag and my guitar and ducked off the train. Victoire was already standing there with Pan clutched in her arms. Tentatively, I tried to scratch Pan's ears and for once he let me.

"Shall we?" Harry asked, ruffling my hair and wrapping his arm around Victoire's shoulders. We nodded in agreement and followed him out to the car.

"How was the train?" I asked Victoire as we stuffed our bags into the boot.

She rolled her eyes. "Nick and Michael kept trying to damage each other," she replied. "And Kate got so fed up with them that she left."

"I know, she came and sat with us," I said, jumping into the front seat.

"So you two are being friendly to each other now?" Harry asked, sounding amused.

"Well, we've got a few mutual friends these days so there was no real point in animosity," I explained.

"What sort of friends?" Harry asked, glancing at Victoire in the rear-view mirror.

"Well, there's Hannah, the same Hannah from last year, but we've chucked Bailey so we don't have to deal with her anymore. And then there's Kate who's good friends with Tom-" Victoire started.

"Good friends with him the same way Rian and Logan are good friends," I piped up.

"No," Victoire replied. "Kate doesn't like Tom. She like someone else."

"Really?" I asked, frowning at her in confusion.

"Really," Victoire replied. "Tom might like her, but she doesn't like him. Anyways, there's also David and Michael who are in Gryffindor with us, and then Nick, who's a Ravenclaw."

"Good for you," Harry said. "I know your dad was worried about you this year."

"I'm fine," Victoire assured him and I noticed that she actually sounded fine when she said it.

"And Teddy, you got taller," Harry added.

"I know!" I exclaimed. "I'm five seven now and everything."

Victoire giggled in the backseat.

"Oh shut up," I grumbled. "I'm taller than you now."

"By a single inch," she replied. "And I'm not done growing."

"Neither am I," I pointed out.

"Kids," Harry said in a mockingly warning tone. I turned around in my seat and stuck my tongue out at her, displaying all the maturity of a second year. She stuck her tongue out right back.

"Don't stick your tongue out at me, Tia'll get jealous," Victoire said, sounding like she might laugh.

"But that's the brilliant bit," I replied. "She doesn't get jealous. My best mate is a girl and she doesn't even care."

"That's because it's Rian," Victoire pointed out. "And Rian's half a foot taller than you and it would never happen."

"She is not half a foot taller than me," I grumbled. Harry raised his eyebrow at me. "Three inches and half a foot are not the same thing."

Harry nodded to himself and went back to watching the road.

"No, the problematic thing about Rian's height is that she and I weigh the exact same even though she's so much taller than me," Victoire said, sounding slightly depressed about it.

"Yeah, well, Rian is a broomstick, so don't worry about it," I replied. This was the one area where Tia did get jealous of Rian. Tia was by no means anything even approaching fat or even plump, but the fact Rian had a body fat index of something unhealthily low made Tia grumble. I frequently had the misfortune of being in the same room with them while Tia loudly wished she had Rian's figure and Rian retorted she would happily gain ten pounds if it meant she got Tia's boobs out of the trade. If Logan happened to be in the room at the time, he'd mutter something semi-inaudible about liking skinny girls and if Rian heard him, she'd blush and refuse to talk to him for a few days.

The first time it had happened, Logan had said he liked skinny girls, Rian had replied that she didn't really care what he liked since she liked guys with some form of muscle mass and then they hadn't talked to each other for a full week.

"This is going to be our entire year, isn't it?" Tom had asked.

"Yep," I had agreed. And indeed, it had been.

As soon as we got to Godric's Hollow, Victoire and Pan spun off through the Floo back to Shell Cottage leaving me with the Potters. Ginny was still working on dinner and the kids were playing fake Quidditch in the den. Gran was nowhere to be seen.

"Erm, Harry," I said quietly. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Harry said.

I screwed up my lacking courage (I hadn't ended up in Gryffindor for a good reason) and decided it would be best if I just did it like ripping off a Band-Aid. "How old were you when you lost your virginity?"

Harry choked on his own saliva and collapsed into a coughing fit for long enough that Ginny walked into the dining room to see what was wrong.

"What happened?" she asked, glancing between my guilty expression and Harry's bright red face and streaming eyes while he tried to get the coughing under control. She raised her eyebrow at me. "You didn't get your girlfriend pregnant, did you?"

"No!" I insisted.

"He asked how old I was when I lost my virginity," Harry explained, managing to stop coughing long enough to take a long drink of his Pumpkin Ale.

Ginny burst out laughing. "He died a virgin," she said, smiling evilly at Harry.

"Thanks, Gin," Harry mumbled, taking another long drink.

"Of course, he only stayed that way for a few hours after coming back to life, but still," she said. I nodded, willing myself not to be awkward about it.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I was fifteen," she said dismissively. Then she paused, apparently remembering that I was going to be fifteen in four months. "Why?"

"Well, I would just ask Gran for advice, but she has the tendency to over share," I replied. "And if I asked, I think she might give me a full blow-by-blow account and I know I never got to meet my grandfather, but I'd just rather not have that image anywhere in my head."

"Fair enough," Ginny said. She thought about it for a second. "You know, I think the oldest anyone in our family – the Weasleys that is – made it was sixteen."

"You can't seriously expect me to believe Percy got laid before he married Audrey," Harry piped up, somehow recovered from the fact I had asked about his sex life.

"Honey, he dated Penelope Clearwater for four years," Ginny pointed out. "Whatever else he is, Percy is still a Weasley. And better than Fred and George at any rate, they were fourteen."

"You know, that actually doesn't surprise me at all," Harry said.

"Penelope Clearwater is my Ancient Runes professor," I said. Then I stopped in horror. "Oh, god, she's my Ancient Runes professor."

And now I was going to be stuck with the mental image of her shagging Uncle Percy. Well, there goes my ability to pay attention in that class.

"Now, why do you ask, Teddy?" Harry asked. "You're not sleeping with Tia, are you?"

"N-no," I said, avoiding his suspicious stare. I realised as I did that I sounded decidedly unconvincing. "I'm not. Really. Promise. I'd just – I'm not. Swear on Michelangelo."

"Good," Harry replied.

He gave me the hairy eyeball for the entire rest of the Christmas holidays. Ginny just thought it was funny, and I was very glad she didn't share our conversation with the rest of the family.

I was very relieved to get back to Hogwarts. It turned out I wasn't the only one since Tom and Logan spent the entire train ride back complaining bitterly about their Christmas in a very strange pidgin of Hungarian and English, their already peculiar accents further accentuated by returning to Hungary for a fortnight.

"They've broken up again," Tom explained when Rian asked.

She nodded slowly and then clapped him on the shoulder. Logan didn't say anything.

"If you guys need a place to stay this summer, Gran would be more than happy to have you back again," I said.

"Thanks," Logan mumbled. He slumped forwards and hit his head on the table and then just lay there for most of the train ride.

"Is it against the law to break up with your parents?" Tom asked as we approached Hogwarts.

I didn't often think about the fact that my parents were dead, but at that moment, I wanted to hit him. He actually had parents he could be annoyed at and I didn't. I was of the opinion that you didn't get to give up on your family no matter what they were like since they were unconditionally supposed to love you and now Tom was taking his parents for granted.

"It just bugs me," I said to Tia once we were safely back in Ravenclaw Tower that night.

"Maybe you should talk to them about it rather than jumping to conclusions," she replied, kissing me softly.

"They're taking their parents for granted," I said. "How is that jumping to conclusions?"

Tia pursed her lips but couldn't think of anything to say so instead she kissed me again and let me slide my hands under her shirt.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"We're so going to kick Gryffindor's collective arse," our captain said while we sat in the changing rooms just before the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw game. I had less confidence in our abilities since Tom was on the warpath and had been since Christmas. Although the three of us – Tom, Logan, and myself – were rather prone to interpersonal violence during our Quidditch games, Tom had actually managed to dislocate most of Logan's fingers during the Gryffindor-Slytherin game. It was entirely by accident but that was before everything with their parents happened, and I wasn't looking forward to playing against him now.

"Alright team, we've got this!" the captain insisted, shooing us onto the pitch.

As it turned out, we did not have that. It seemed that in desperation to keep Tom away from people, Rian was hell-bent on catching the Snitch even sooner than humanly possible and had it in hand before Tom and I had stopped fighting over the initial Quaffle toss.

"Let go, Lupin," Tom insisted, still trying to wrench the Quaffle out of my hands.

"The game is over, McEwan," I replied. "We have to return the Quaffle to Madam Spinnet."

"I'll take it," Tom said, still not letting go.

"Just let go of the fucking Quaffle," I snapped. "You're so good at letting go of everything else."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"You know exactly what it means," I grumbled, already regretting my words.

"You mean that because I don't want to be around my toxic family that you know _nothing_ about that I'm somehow a terrible person?" he demanded. "Well, fuck, I'm sorry that my family lived long enough for me to grow to hate them, unlike yours."

I was unclear on whether or not he dropped the Quaffle first or if I did, but I was pretty sure he swung first. It was close either way. Our punch throwing was not deterred by the ten foot drop to the ground and the moment we hit and tumbled off our brooms, the rest of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw teams swarmed us to try and keep us from beating the shit out of each other.

I was peripherally aware of Logan and Tia running onto the pitch as well, and then suddenly Rian and Tia were restraining me while Logan locked Tom in a full nelson.

"Just what the fuck do you think you two are doing?" Rian demanded.

Tom and I were too busy trying to kick each other to reply to anyone's questions and it was only after Neville and Professor Davies petrified the two of us that we managed to stay still.

"Bring them to my office," Professor Davies suggested before someone levitated the two of us into the school and directed us to Professor Davies' room. Once we were dropped into our respective chairs – complete with a human buffer between us formed by Rian, Logan, and Tia – they unpetrified us. Tom and I sat in our seats grumbling angrily at each other.

"Aren't you two supposed to be friends?" Neville asked, crossing his arms and glaring at the two of us.

"And aren't you supposed to pick fights with the Slytherins?" Professor Davies asked Tom.

"Hey," Logan protested. "We're not all greasy slime-balls, and if it makes you feel better, he dislocated my hand the last time we played each other."

"Right," Professor Davies said. "Well, beating each other in the middle of the Quidditch pitch is a very un-Ravenclaw way to act."

"Pretty typical of Gryffindor though," I grumbled, crossing my arms and sinking lower in my seat when Rian cuffed me upside the head.

"You'll both be serving detention," Neville said. Tom and I nodded. "And if you need to talk to someone and iron out whatever it is that's going on-"

"I've got it, Professor," Rian offered.

Neville nodded, seeming to agree that this was an appropriate solution. "Your detention will be on the next Hogsmead Saturday. Report to my office at ten."

We nodded and they shooed us out of the office.

"Come on," Tia said, dragging me towards the Ravenclaw common room before Tom and I could get into it again. Logan and Rian pulled him away to Gryffindor Tower and we split ways at the fifth floor. "What were you even fighting about?"

"Our parents," I grumbled.

"You've never told me about your parents," she said, holding onto my arm and resting her head against my shoulder while we walked.

"They both died in the Battle of Hogwarts," I replied. "I was three weeks old."

"Oh," she said softly. We walked into the common room and she lightly touched my split lip. "Why don't you go take a shower and I'll be waiting for you in your room."

I nodded in agreement and headed up the stairs to collect my clothes before I returned to the boys' showers on the fifth floor. My lip stung and I was pretty sure I had a black eye. Just to make Tom feel bad, I didn't metamorphmagus them away.

When I got back to my room, both my roommates were gone – probably down at dinner – and Tia was sitting cross-legged on my bed. She stretched out her arms and pulled me into them before we fell backwards onto the bed. I rested my head on her boobs and she stroked my hair.

"I'd say I could kiss it and make it better, but I think that might hurt more," she mumbled.

"I don't mind," I said, lifting my head and kissing her. Almost instantly, my hands were under her shirt and she was pulling my shirt over my head. It was her new favourite thing to do while we snogged. She kept touching my chest with her very small and delicate and soft hands while I focused all of my energy on not squeezing too hard. Her bra was lacy that day and didn't seem to have any padding in it because I could feel everything underneath it.

Then, rather uncharacteristically, she reached behind her back and unclasped her bra. I could barely handle it, getting to feel her skin under my hands. Especially not when she squeaked very happily as I brushed my thumb across her nipple.

"I – sorry," I mumbled, breaking the kiss.

"Why?" she asked, searching my face with her rather lovely brown eyes.

"I need a minute," I replied, biting the inside of my lip to distract myself.

"Why?" she asked, sounding now like she knew exactly what was going on.

"I-"

That was as far as I got, however, before her hands were very suddenly in my pants. My eyes widened in shock and then she started touching me.

"T-Tia," I stammered, finding it very impossible to move.

"What?" she asked, giving me an innocent stare.

"You don't have to do that," I said while every single other impulse in my body screamed for me to shut the fuck up and just let it happen.

She kissed me quickly. "But I want to," she said.

"O-okay," I replied, kissing her again. She kept touching me and it took a shamefully short amount of time for her to finish me off. I collapsed against her with my face buried in her shoulder so I could take a moment to catch my breath and recover from my embarrassment.

"Thank you," I said. She laughed. "I mean it. You're amazing and I don't deserve you in any way, and thank you-"

"I'm going to go wash my hands," she said, pulling them out of my pants. "And then you can keep thanking me, alright?"

I nodded and rolled aside to let her get up.

She ducked into our bathroom and not moments later, my dormmates returned from dinner. They took in my dishevelled appearance and Tia's shoes on the floor next to my bed and then gave me a severely disapproving look before they backed out of the room.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"Why are you in such a good mood when I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you?" Rian demanded the next Saturday while we studied in the library. She had dragged me off to give me a severe talking to about Tom and, to a lesser extent, Logan.

"Sorry," I said, attempting to compose myself. I couldn't stop reliving that morning and the fact that Tia had been entirely naked on my bed.

"What? Are you getting laid or something?" Rian asked, giving me a patiently annoyed look.

"Erm…not exactly," I said. "Sorry, you wanted to talk about McEwan and Logan."

"You're being an asshole," she informed me.

I blinked. "But they actually have parents," I said. "Who they don't want. How does that make me an asshole?"

Rian sighed. "Have you ever talked to one of them about their parents? Like, actually talked, not just overheard them saying something offhand about it?"

I realised as she asked that I hadn't. She seemed to already know my answer because she kept talking.

"Their mum didn't want kids," Rian said. "And she was miserably unhappy living in Scotland with their dad for the first few years of marriage, so she used the war as an excuse to drag him back to Hungary, and he really hated Hungary so the trade-off for agreeing to live there was kids. They spent most of Tom and Logan's childhood fighting and every six months or so, their mum would throw their dad out and their grandparents spent most of their childhood calling whatever the Hungarian version of the child advocacy service is on their parents. And so when they got divorced officially last – well, two years now – they were both so relieved that at least the fighting would stop and they would be living with the parent that actually wanted them and so when their parents got back together over Christmas, it ended because their mum wanted their dad to move back to Hungary to be with her, but she didn't want Tom and Logan to move back with him, which was the deal breaker for their dad and now he blames his dysfunctional marriage and divorce on them."

I gaped at her in horror.

"Which has led Tom to believe that love doesn't exist, and turned Logan into the type of person who's going to fall in love once and then hold on as hard as possible," Rian added.

"I had no idea," I said.

"Yeah, I know, that's why I told you," she replied.

"You know Logan fancies you, right?" I asked after a long pause.

"Hah, wow, I didn't realise you had a sense of humour," she said, staring back down at her essay. I sighed in annoyance and went back to my own essay.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"Can you two be trusted to be in the same room long enough to get through band practice?" Logan asked the next week. Tom and I hadn't served our detention yet and therefore I hadn't had the opportunity to apologise.

"Yeah," I said. "I think."

Tom just nodded and Logan showed us the new song he'd been working on. Rian looked away from the lyrics and went back to figuring out the appropriate drum beat. It took us the better part of a few days and then we were ready to play it for our peer review board. Tom started the guitar since I was to be singing most of the song.

_Make a wish on our sorry little hearts, _

_Have a smoke, pour a drink, steal a kiss in the dark_

_Fingernails on the skin like the teeth of a shark_

_I'm intoxicated by the lie_

_In the chill of your stare I am painfully lost _

_Like a deer in the lights of an oncoming bus_

_For the thrill of you touch I will shamefully lust_

_As you tell me we're nothing but trouble_

_Hearts on fire tonight, feel my bones ignite_

_Feels like war, war, feels like war, war_

_Hearts on fire tonight, feel my bones ignite_

_Feels like war, feels like war_

_We go together or we don't go down at all_

_We go together or we don't go down at all_

_We go together or we don't go down at all_

_Whoa_

_Fail safe trigger lock down cold_

_Wipe the drive clean slate, quick sound the alarm_

_No escape from the truth and the weight of it all_

_I am caught in the web of the lie_

_And the bitch of it all is that I'm running from_

_The desire of the people to whom I belong_

_At the end of the day you can tell me I'm wrong_

'_Cause you went to all of the trouble_

_Hearts on fire tonight, feel my bones ignite_

_Feels like war, war, feels like war, war_

_Hearts on fire tonight, feel my bones ignite_

_Feels like war, war, feels like war, war_

_We go together or we don't go down at all_

_We go together or we don't go down at all_

_We go together or we don't go down at all_

_Hearts on fire tonight, feel my bones ignite_

_It feels like war. Love feels like war_

_Hearts on fire tonight, feel my bones ignite_

_Feels like war, war, feels like war, war_

_Hearts on fire tonight, feel my bones ignite_

_Love feels like war, feels like war, war_

_We go together or we don't go down at all_

_We go together or we don't go down at all_

_We go together or we don't go down at all_

_Is this the end of us or just a means to start again?_

When we finished playing, everyone started applauding and Tia jumped out of her seat to kiss me.

"You're so sexy when you sing," she whispered in my ear before she kissed me again. I was a bit too wrapped up in the kiss to really notice anything that was going on, but eventually I heard a quiet voice piping up to say she had figured out the name for our band.

"What?" I asked Victoire, hoping she would repeat herself at audible levels. She was sitting on one of the desks between Nick and Michael while Kate sat a few seats away looking patiently amused and slightly exasperated.

"I figured out the name for your band," she said loudly enough for everyone else to hear her.

"What is it?" Rian asked, sounding enthusiastic while acting completely oblivious to the looks Logan was sending her way.

"Hearts on fire," Victoire said with a shrug.

The rest of us exchanged looks before Tom and I said – in perfect unison – "I love it."

**Review!**


	13. From Heads Unworthy

**A/N: Hey everyone. So this is a slightly shorter chapter because nothing is really happening to Victoire at the moment. Unlike me, since I'm currently at work doing nothing but writing fanfiction because my job is kind of awesome. Thanks for reviewing: Blood and Dark Chocolate, noodlesandcheese, Sarnia Nereid, blue21, melancholicmermaid (and Tom, even though you reviewed chapter ten rather than eleven but whatever). A link to the song in this (and every) chapter can be found on my profile. **

**Disclaimer: the lyrics to "From Heads Unworthy" belong to Rise Against. Just like my soul. **

Chapter Twelve – From Heads Unworthy

(Victoire)

"And I just don't even know why I bother, really," Kate complained, stabbing into the pint of Ben and Jerry's with her spoon and then handing it over to me.

"Because you care?" I guessed, taking a bite and handing it over to Hannah.

"They'll sort their own things out eventually won't they?" Hannah asked, handing the ice cream back to Kate.

"They're fourteen/fifteen year old boys," Kate replied. "Of course they're not going to sort things out on their own."

"They cooperated long enough to work on a song together," I pointed out.

"Yeah, they did," Hannah agreed. "And they agreed on the band name Victoire suggested."

"But that's just because whatever else they might be, they're not stupid," Kate replied.

The three of us fell silent for a moment and all reached for the ice cream in the middle of the bed.

"Why for fuck's sake are you on my bed?" Michael demanded, stepping into the room with his blond hair dripping into his eyes. He was wearing his pyjamas and had his towel draped around his neck.

"Because Bailey, Tori, and Ellie aren't in here," I replied. I picked up the pint of ice cream and held it out towards him. "Chocolate fudge brownie."

Michael took another moment to frown at us in confusion before he sat cross-legged between me and Kate and stole my spoon to take a bite. The four of us were still sitting there when David and their two other dormmates returned from their showers.

"Damn, Michael Harvey gets all the girls," one of them – Mack McCormick – said.

"Hey, if you've got it," Michael replied with a casual shrug, handing the ice cream to Hannah. She made eye-contact with David and blushed before she looked back down at the ice cream. "So what were you three talking about?"

"Boys," we chorused.

"In the boys' dormitory…" Mack replied. "Well doesn't that sound like a brilliant idea."

"We weren't talking about any of you," Kate said. "We were talking about Tom and Teddy and their bullshit."

"I still can't believe they hit each other at the Quidditch game," Hannah said. "Quidditch is dangerous enough without them trying to actually kill each other."

"Right though?" Kate replied. "But I dunno, I think I'm going to go out for the team next year."

"We've already got a Seeker," Michael pointed out.

Kate shrugged. "I don't play Seeker," she said.

"What do you play?" David asked, leaning over Hannah's and my shoulder to take a bite of the ice cream. I think Hannah just about fainted.

"Beater," Kate replied with an impish smile. The four of us – and Mack and Hollis – stared at her. Kate was 4'9" and weight exactly half what David weighed.

"Can you even carry a bat?" Mack asked in utter confusion.

Kate shrugged again and went back to eating our ice cream. "Victoire, what position do you play?"

"I don't play," I replied automatically. Of course, it was literally impossible to grow up in my family without having played Quidditch, but I never really considered playing for the House team.

"You're a Weasley," Mack reminded me. "What position do you play?"

I blushed and stared at my ice cream, pushing my glasses up my nose. "Erm, I always played Chaser at home."

"Conveniently, two of our Chasers are finishing school this year."

Everyone in the room turned to see Tom leaning in the doorway. He inspected the situation. "Ooh, is that chocolate?"

He bounded into the room, lounged across Michael's pillows directly behind me and grabbed the ice cream.

"What are you all up to?" he asked.

"Nothing much," Kate said.

"We all got back from our showers and the girls were here on my bed," Michael explained.

Tom raised his eyebrow and surveyed the four boys who lived in the dormitory. "You lot all went and took showers…together…"

"Hogwarts bathrooms are historically the most dangerous places in the entire school so forgive us for practicing safety in numbers," Mack piped up, crawling into his bed and drawing the curtains shut.

"See, that's the sort of thing I expect from the three of you," Tom said, gesturing at Kate, Hannah and me before he fed me a bite of ice cream. I gave him a very confused look.

"We do all go to the showers together, but only because if we don't, Bailey, Tori, or Ellie will steal our things, break our things, or light our things on fire," Kate explained.

"You're not worried about them doing the same thing to your stuff back in the dorms?" Michael asked.

"They're scared of Pan," I replied. "He guards our things while we're out. It's like having a smaller, meaner guard dog that blends into the décor. Merlin forbid I had been in any other house, he would've stuck out like a sore thumb and now he just blends in."

"I love that you have a pet fox," Michael said, taking the ice cream.

"Thanks," I said. "I love having a pet fox as well."

Kate laughed at something, although I wasn't sure what, and snatched the ice cream out of Michael's hands.

"So Tom what are you doing down here?" she asked.

"I was on my way to the common room to avoid my dormmates and then heard you lot talking," he explained.

"Why were you trying to avoid your dormmates?" Hannah asked.

"Because they were debating whether Tia Thompson, Chloe Richardsen, or Rian Calloway was the most attractive," Tom explained. "And I couldn't really comment on any of them so I left."

"You chould've commented on Chloe Richardsen," Kate pointed out. "Since she's neither your best friend, nor your friend's girlfriend."

Tom shrugged. "She's not my type."

"Boobs aren't your type?" David asked, giving him a sketchy look.

"Forgive me for thinking that there's got to be more to a girl than her tits," Tom replied while Hannah, Kate, and I looked awkward. I wasn't sure about the other two, but my awkwardness was unrelated to the fact the boys were comfortable talking about that in front of us, but rather from the fact that the three of us weren't exactly busty. It was mostly annoying to me since I had seen all sorts of pictures of my mother when she was thirteen, and my aunt Gabrielle (who I liked a whole lot more than my mother) and they were both perfect looking when they were my age. I was decidedly not.

"Good boy," Kate said. "You need to talk to Teddy."

Tom sighed, obviously unhappy with the turn the conversation had taken. "Why?"

"Because you two are pretty close to best friends and you both need to take a moment to see things from each other's point of view," Kate informed him.

"Tell that to him," Tom replied.

"Rian already did," Kate explained. "Now it's your turn."

"Forgive me for not feeling favourably towards my borderline abusive mother and her abandoning us," Tom grumbled.

"If it would make it easier, you could always just write it in a song," Kate replied. "And if you don't want to stay at Teddy's house this summer, you're more than welcome to stay at mine. You'll just have to share a room with my little brother."

Tom grumbled, took another bite of our ice cream and then bid us all goodnight before he slumped out of the room.

"I didn't know his family was that bad," Hannah mumbled. "It makes me appreciate my dad a little more."

"What about your mum?" Michael asked.

"Oh, they're divorced for years," Hannah said. "She lives in the States. But my dad and I get on really well, so it's alright."

Michael nodded slowly. "It's just me and my mum."

David grunted in his very eloquent way and Michael handed him the ice cream.

"Fluffy's parents hate each other and all six of their children," Michael translated.

"Did you just call him Fluffy?" I asked, frowning at Michael. Michael nodded like this wasn't weird.

"Can we call you Fluffy?" Kate asked. David glared at Michael and then bid us goodnight.

"What about you, Kate?" Hannah asked. "What's your parental sob story?"

"I don't have one," Kate replied with a shrug. "It's just me and my parents and my four little siblings. Victoire?"

"I've only got two younger siblings," I said. "And I have to share a room with my little sister, and I don't get along with my mother, but that's it."

"Well, that and you're a Weasley," Michael added. "So you've got all of those people as well."

I nodded in agreement and fell silent while we finished off the ice cream. I had a boringly functional family and it also happened to be the most famous family in the wizarding world. Even my uncle Percy fit into the family these days. Ever since the war ended, my family had been stuck together with a permanent sticking charm. Every few years we were required to present ourselves at the Burrow for two weeks during the summer, and we had impromptu family dinners all the time. Everyone knew everything about everyone else and secrets were practically non-existent. It was so weird to be totally out of it while I was at Hogwarts, except for the fact Gran Weasley mailed me a newsletter once a week to make sure I was up to date on all the family matters. There is no "you" in Weasley, there is only "we."

It was two weeks from the ice cream conversation when Hearts on Fire invited us to a band practice.

"We actually wrote this one together," Tom explained, gesturing between himself, Logan, and Teddy.

"Good," Kate and Tia chorused.

"Let's hear it then," Michael said.

They started playing almost immediately and then Tom started singing. I personally preferred Tom's voice to Teddy's.

_We are the children you reject and disregard._

_These aching cries come from the bottom of our hearts_

_You can't disown us now, we're your own flesh and blood_

_And we don't disappear just because your eyes are shut_

_Now tell me, love loss like a bullet's path_

_Tears through the cavity of my chest_

_Lights out, because the fuse has blown_

_As their castles crumble slowly, we watch them fall_

_The crown slips from heads unworthy as we gain control_

_This is the family that we crossed or never had_

_This is the war that was lost the day it began._

'_Cause it's the race we run but it keeps us at the start_

_And it's the song I've sung from the bottom of my heart_

_That's how we read you like a polygraph_

_Not one single bone in your back_

_Own up to how you let us down_

_As their castles crumble slowly, we watch them fall_

_The crown slips from heads unworthy, as we gain control_

_Except for you and me, love, everyone's the same_

_We know, we know, we know, we know_

_That if to live we have to be numb_

_Then I'd rather know the pain,_

_I'd rather know, I'd rather know._

_This happens almost never, but it happened once to me_

_And this will never be the same, the ends we seam together_

_I'm not after fame and fortune, I'm after you_

_When I've served my time I swear I will come back for you_

_As their castles crumble slowly, we watch them fall_

_The crown slips from heads unworthy, and right onto ours_

_But I'm after you, I'm after you. I'm after you. _

After they finished the song, the rest of us burst into applause and loud cheers. They all seemed appropriately pleased with themselves.

"You three should write together more often," Tia suggested. "It works out well."

"Thanks," the three of them said, awkwardly scratching the backs of their necks in rather perfect unison. Rian burst out laughing.

"So when are you guys going to start having actual gigs?" Nick asked.

"I dunno," Teddy replied.

"Maybe sometime this summer," Rian said. "We had initially planned on recording some sort of demo this next weekend, but Tweedle Dee and Twit-fuck got themselves detention."

"Oi!" Tom and Teddy exclaimed.

"Does that make me Tweedle Dum?" Logan asked, sounding unenthused by the idea.

"Of course it does," Rian replied.

"Wait, why am I Twit-fuck?" Teddy demanded. Rian shrugged, but kept grinning at the three of them mischievously.

The rest of us laughed and dispersed back to our respective common rooms.

"I can't wait until we get to go to Hogsmead," Michael enthused while we invaded a set of sofas.

"I know, me neither," Kate replied. "I hear it's excellent."

"It is," I assured them. "There's fresh Butterbeer and Honeyduke's and the WWW and it's awesome."

"You've been?" Hannah asked, sounding jealous.

"Yeah," I admitted, feeling awkward again. "My family."

"You'll have to show me around sometime next year," Michael said.

"Yeah sure," I replied, picking up my notebook and starting to scribble down my latest story idea. My main problem was that I wanted to write a love story but I hadn't exactly been in love. And I wanted my characters to kiss and things, but I had never done anything. I had done absolutely nothing. I had never been on a date, and I had never told a guy I liked him, and no guy had ever admitted to liking me – not that I blamed them because if I was a bloke, I certainly wouldn't fancy me – and therefore I was having trouble writing a love story. But that didn't stop me from fantasising about it.

"You realise Michael was asking you out, right?" Kate asked once we were back in our dorm that night.

I burst out laughing. "No he wasn't," I said.

"What makes you say that?" Kate replied, sounding curious.

"Because he's not clinically insane," I said.

"Michael Harvey?" Ellie asked from her bed.

"Yeah," Kate, Hannah, and I replied shortly.

"He doesn't like Vicky," Ellie snapped.

"For once, I agree with you, also don't call me Vicky," I replied.

"Well he sure as shit doesn't like you," Kate said, giving Ellie a disparaging glance.

"He will," Ellie insisted. "Just watch."

Kate, Hannah, and I gave her a pitying look and returned to our conference about whether or not Michael actually liked me. Hannah was unsure, Kate seemed convinced that he did, and I was convinced that he didn't.

"And besides," I said. "We're twelve. It doesn't really matter."

"He's thirteen," Kate replied with a shrug. "You'll be thirteen in two months. And he was asking you out."

"I guess we'll just have to see who was right next year when we go to Hogsmead," I said. I was still convinced I was right, but the strangest blossoming was starting somewhere in my stomach and it felt oddly like hope.

**Review!**


	14. You Shook Me All Night Long

**A/N: So I've decided that "whateverthefuck" shall be a word akin in construction to inasmuch, insofar, nevertheless, nonetheless, and related phrase-words. Tom – well, I suppose I could work her in totally randomly, but she is the same age as Scorpius and them from I Solemnly Swear, so she's a bit younger than the principle cast of this story. I actually have the perfect place for her now that I think about it, so beware. Thanks for reviewing: Blood and Dark Chocolate, noodlesandcheese, Prunella7, sooooooooooooo, Sarnia Nereid, melancholicmermaid, FairyLightsAndGlitter, Tom, and blue21. Sorry this update took so long. I just had a dreadful weekend and got home an hour ago.**

**Warning: This chapter rated M in case the title wasn't a dead enough give away.**

Chapter Thirteen – You Shook Me All Night Long

"_And you shook me all night long_" – AC/DC

(Teddy)

Tom and I managed not to kill each other during our detention. We were set the rather unpleasant task of sorting student records in the caretaker's crimes and misdemeanors file cabinet and it was rather annoying that we kept coming across things like "Fred and George Weasley" and "Harry Potter" and "James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew" but never any that were for "Hamish McEwan."

"So which of us is going to apologise first?" I asked after we had been sorting for an hour.

Tom grunted in response and tossed me a stack of sorted files. I put them in the box.

"Victoire's going to try out for the Quidditch team," Tom said finally. "So's Kate."

"You got Victoire to agree to that?" I asked. All growing up she hadn't been bad at Quidditch, but she never seemed overly enthusiastic about anything that required her to do anything besides sit in her room writing.

"We might have to forcibly coerce her onto the pitch, but it'll happen," Tom replied. "Kate plays Beater."

"Sorry?" I asked, frowning at him.

"Yeah, that's kind of what we said," he replied.

"Bludgers weigh more than she does," I pointed out. "Maybe not literally, but pretty damn close."

"Right?" Tom said. "But no, she insists she plays Beater."

"That should be entertaining at the very least," I replied. "And then when Dominique Weasley is inevitably sorted into Gryffindor they can play Beater together and everyone can laugh at them until they get their skulls broken in."

"Dominique Weasley?" Tom asked.

"Victoire's little sister," I explained. "Tiny, waifish, terrifying."

Tom laughed, and then I laughed and then everything seemed to be okay.

"I'm sorry I brought up your parents," he said finally when we had only a half hour left of our detention.

"I'm sorry I brought up yours," I replied. "Rian told me about them."

"Yeah, Kate said," he said. He sighed. "Sometimes I wish my parents were war heroes like yours."

"No you don't," I assured him. "I promise. You don't want people to stare at you because of your last name or for people to give you sympathy you didn't earn. Maybe when we're rich and famous because of our band it'll be okay, but right now it's kind of just annoying. Especially when the professors give me that, 'oh you poor baby' look. You don't get to be your own person. I'd so much rather they not be war heroes and instead be alive to raise me so that I wouldn't have to go to _the_ Harry Potter for girl advice."

Tom nodded slowly like he was processing what I said.

"Let's agree here and now," he said, holding out his hand so we could shake on it. "We're going to be famous enough that everyone's going to associate the name McEwan with me and Logan, and Lupin with you, and Calloway with Rian, regardless of whateverthefuck our predecessors did."

"Deal," I agreed.

We fell silent and returned to our task for about fifteen minutes before we spoke again.

"How's life been besides the whole family shit?" I asked.

"Oh you know," he replied. "My dormmates won't shut up in their debate about which girl in our year is the most fit."

I cringed at him. "Tia, obviously," I said.

"Yeah, you're rather biased," he pointed out. "Apparently, it's currently a toss-up between Adelaide Anders, Elizabeth Martin, and Rian."

I blinked at him. "Rian?" I asked.

Tom shrugged. "Apparently they go for the whole, 'I could and would happily beat the shit out of you and look sexy as hell while doing so' look."

"Fair enough," I said, still puzzling over it.

"So how the fuck are we going to get Rian to realise Logan's in love with her?" Tom asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "I tried flat out telling her and she laughed at me, so I'm not really sure where to go from there."

"You don't suppose that she just doesn't like him and therefore keeps denying that he likes her because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings, do you?" he asked.

It honestly hadn't occurred to me, but now I was paranoid that that was the case.

"That would suck," I said. "Especially because she's got this theory that everything with your parents fucked you both up in opposite ways."

"In which opposite ways?" he asked, handing me the last of the files to put in the box. I did, and then we ducked out of the caretaker's office.

"She thinks it convinced you that love doesn't exist, and that it convinced him to only fall in love once and hold on tightly to whoever he falls in love with," I explained.

He thought about it for a second. "Holy shit, she's totally right," he said. "Am I allowed to use that as an excuse to be a dirty whore?"

"At least try for a clean one," I replied. "Easier to get laid if you aren't disease ridden."

"Like you'd know," he said as we sat down at the Hufflepuff table to grab dinner.

"Maybe I would," I replied, raising my eyebrow at him.

He frowned at me. "There's no way in hell Tia's let you fuck her," he said.

"That is precisely why you're single," I replied. "Because you don't use complimentary language."

"You're avoiding the question," he said.

"Yes," I agreed.

He surveyed me with suspicious eyes for a long moment. "No," he said. "There's no way. You wouldn't be able to shut up about it if you weren't a virgin."

I shrugged and picked at my food.

"No way," Tom said. "You are still a virgin, aren't you?"

"Barely," I replied.

Tom kept looking at me suspiciously. "What does that even mean?"

"It means I have not yet caught the Snitch, but I have certainly scored a few goals," I replied.

Tom glared at me. "That's not fair."

"And let me tell you," I continued. "Way better than beating Bludgers."

He kept glaring until Tia, Rian, Adrian, and Logan fell onto the benches next to us.

"What are you two talking about?" Tia asked, draping one arm on the shoulder closest to her and leaning against me.

"Quidditch," Tom and I replied in perfect unison.

"Boys," Tia said with a patiently annoyed sigh.

"I take it the two of you kissed and made up?" Rian asked. She seemed to be carefully ignoring the fact that Logan was sitting very close to her.

"Well, you know, nothing better than a good snog in the caretaker's office to settle a fight," Tom replied.

"Of course," I agreed.

"Good, because it sucks when you two are fighting," Logan replied.

"You mean unlike this summer when you and Rian wouldn't be in the same room for longer than five minutes?" Tom asked.

"You know, I don't even remember what we were fighting about," Logan said.

"I don't think it was anything in particular, just things like you being very much in my personal space, would you scoot over for the love of god," Rian replied, pushing him slightly. Logan rolled his eyes and slid down the bench a bit. Tom and I exchanged worried looks.

"Sorry," Logan muttered, sounding annoyed.

We finished dinner and they handed over the things they had got for me and Tom at Honeyduke's and then we started to go our separate ways.

"We've still got five hours until the prefects come to kick me out of your room," Tia whispered.

I grinned stupidly to myself and then noticed Logan grumping off to the Slytherin common room while Rian started for the stairs in an equally bad mood. I groaned and grabbed Tom by the arm.

"Do you want Rian or Logan?" I asked.

"I suppose I'll take Logan," he offered, chasing after him.

"Sorry, I'll be there in a minute," I said to Tia. "I just need to give Rian a reality check."

"Okay," Tia said. "I'll be in the common room."

I smiled at her and chased Rian up the stairs. I caught up with her at the fourth floor and dragged her into our practice room before she could protest.

"What's your deal?" I asked.

"My deal with what?" she replied, pushing her short hair out of her eyes. I raised my eyebrow, fully convinced that she knew exactly what I was talking about.

"Do you just not fancy him or is it something else?" I asked.

"Fancy whom?" she replied.

I gave her an annoyed look, that made me annoyed because I had to look up at her to do it. It would be so much easier to look patronising if I didn't have to tilt my head back to look her in the eye.

"Who do you think?" I asked.

She shrugged, giving me a wide-eyed, innocent stare.

"Rian," I scolded. "You don't get to give everyone else advice and be perceptive about everyone else's life and then completely ignore yourself."

"I'm not ignoring anything," she said, sounding as obstinate as possible. "I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit," I replied, crossing my arms.

She stared at me for another moment and then sank onto one of the abandoned desks and pulled her knees to her chest. "It's not that I don't fancy him," she mumbled.

"Funny way of showing that," I replied, sitting down next to her.

She huffed. "I just…I don't get why he likes me."

"Well there is the fact that in the Gryffindor fourth year boys' dormitory, you're currently in the running for the fittest girl in our year," I replied. She laughed. "Or more likely because he likes you as a person since, ironically, Logan's somehow the nicest of the lot of us when he's not trying to pretend he's an ass."

"He's already so screwed up because of his parents and I don't want to add to that," she protested.

"Rian, we're fourteen," I replied. I thought about it. "Or, well, I'm fourteen for another two weeks, and you lot are fifteen. It's not like anything's permanent. Come on. There's one Hogsmeade weekend left. Just…I dunno, go together and see if it's weird."

"Of course it'd be weird," she said. "It would be me and Logan being civil to each other over coffee at Madame Puddifoot's."

"Maybe even downright friendly," I replied. She huffed again and I scrutinised her for a second, using the best of my Ravenclaw deductive reasoning. "You're scared, aren't you?"

"Damn right," she said, nodding to emphasise her point.

"Then suck up your bloody Gryffindor courage and ask him to Hogsmeade," I replied.

"Ask him?" she demanded. "Yeah, no. The furthest I'm going in this endeavour is that I won't say no if he asks me."

I groaned, rolled my eyes, and slid off the desk. "Don't be an idiot," I suggested. "I'm going to go hang out with my girlfriend."

She glowered at me and slid off her desk before she said goodnight and left the room.

The whole walk back to Ravenclaw Tower I was feeling rather proud of myself, but as soon as I started up the stairs, my own words started echoing in my head. That we were fifteen-ish and nothing was permanent. That Tia wasn't permanent. I pushed the thought out of my head and opened the door to find her waiting for me, looking as beautiful as ever.

"What did you have to talk to Rian about?" she asked, linking her hands behind my neck and kissing me softly.

"I just had to remind her to not be an idiot and to maybe say yes if and when Logan asks her out," I replied.

"Oh good," Tia said. "They would be so cute together."

"Right?" I said. "Tom and I are working on hatching a plan."

Tia grinned up at me and kissed me again before the eternally miffed prefect shooed us out of the room with the ominous promise to check on us at midnight to make sure we weren't having sex.

But then the worst thing happened. Whenever I wasn't with Tia my brain kept reminding me that it wasn't permanent and that it had to end sometime. I didn't like my brain very much by the end of April.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"At least we don't have detention this time," Tom said the Friday before the last Hogsmeade visit.

"I know!" I replied enthusiastically. "It's going to be great. Right Logan?"

I elbowed him significantly in the side as he still hadn't asked Rian to go with him and was, in fact, still stubbornly refusing to actually admit he liked her.

Then, thankfully, he rolled his eyes at me and Tom in exasperation and looked directly across the table at Rian. She was staring at her Charms book – it was her worst subject – intently.

"Rian," Logan said, sounding like he was steeling himself for the worst.

"Yeah," she replied without looking up.

"Go to Hogsmeade with me," he said, failing to phrase it like a question.

I elbowed him again and he glared at me.

"Please," he added.

"Aren't we all already going together?" she asked, finally looking up from her book, making very brief eye contact with him, and then staring at me instead. I gave her a pointed look.

"I – I mean, yeah, I suppose," Logan replied, his brusque demeanour vanishing in favour of awkward nerves. "But I sort of meant as-"

"I know what you meant," she interrupted, turning to stare back at her book. "Alright then."

The back of her neck turned faintly pink.

"R-really? You'll go with me?" Logan asked, sounding far too relieved to recover any sort of cool factor. Tom gave him a disapproving look. "I mean, yeah, sounds cool."

Rian kept staring at her book, but I could've sworn I saw the corner of her mouth twitch. We didn't have too long to get used to the idea, however, when Professor Clearwater happened by, looking deeply uncomfortable. It was a moment made worse by my remembering the fact she had shagged Uncle Percy.

"Hello Teddy, Tom," she said, nodding at the two of us. We nodded back. "Just as an announcement, all fourth years are to report to the Charms classroom on Sunday at eleven."

"Why?" Logan asked.

"Erm, well, perhaps it's best you all just show up," she replied. "Attendance is mandatory."

The four of us exchanged concerned glances while she walked away to tell the fifth years next to us that they would be required in the Transfiguration classroom at eleven on Sunday.

"What do you suppose that's going to be about?" Rian asked.

"No idea," Tom replied, staring after Professor Clearwater in a confused way.

"Can't be anything good," Logan said.

The rest of us agreed, and we returned to our breakfast.

Rian and Logan spent the entire day being awkward around each other. Tom and I started to worry that one of them was going to bail by dinner, and made a pact to wait in the Entrance Hall until they had left together.

This didn't prove to be a real problem, however, since Logan showed up promptly at eleven on Saturday morning, even looking relatively well kept. He was wearing one of his ubiquitous Supernatural t-shirts it was true, but it was under a button down that exactly matched the same shade of dark green of his eyes. He'd even managed to find a pair of jeans without holes in them, and coerced his normally unmanageable curly hair out of his eyes.

"What?" he asked when he noticed Tom and me staring.

"Nothing," we chorused. He continued to frown at us suspiciously until Rian cleared her throat.

All three of us turned to gape at her instead. She wasn't wearing a dress or anything, which would have made at least one of several heads in attendance explode, but her jeans were practically painted on in a painful reminder of the fact that she had very nice legs. This was combined with a white vest covered in black lace that also stuck to her like a second skin. Someone – my money was on the combined forces of Kate, Victoire, and Hannah – had softly curled her hair and (probably forcibly) dabbed on a touch of lipstick and mascara. Suddenly I could understand exactly why the boys in Tom's dormitory thought she ought to be in the running for the best looking girl in our year.

"Erm, I – you – hi," Logan managed to say after the three of us had been staring at her like cretins for much longer than was appropriate.

"I told them I looked ridiculous," Rian said, rolling her eyes at the unnamed forces behind her appearance. "I'm just going to go change quickly and then-"

"Don't!" all three of us exclaimed. She looked rather taken aback by our vehemence.

"You look great," I assured her, standing up and edging back towards the main staircase.

"Where the fuck are you going?" Tom demanded.

"Tia and I decided to stay in," I explained with a completely unnecessary and pointed wink. "Make sure they actually stay together."

Tom nodded in agreement while Rian and Logan shouted curses at my retreating back. I snickered and was still snickering when I got back to the common room.

"Did they actually go?" Tia asked.

"Yep," I replied, scooping her off the sofa and carrying her up the stairs to my room. Both my roommates were off to Hogsmeade – with dates for once – and so were all the prefects. The only people left were the first and second years.

"She looked pretty, didn't she," Tia said.

I shrugged and set her on my bed before I snogged her soundly and worked on unbuttoning her very adorable summer dress.

"I think you look pretty," I replied, kissing the side of her neck and sliding the straps of her dress off her shoulders.

"I'm sure you do," she said, pushing me away for a moment so she could take off her dress entirely. I noted with glee that she had forgone a bra entirely whilst getting dressed that morning. I kissed down the side of her neck to her boobs and she gasped slightly. She made me stop for a moment so she could pull my shirt over my head and then she snogged me again, pulling me down on top of her. I ran my hands across her breasts and down her sides to her hips while she played with my hair and massaged my tongue with hers. She inhaled sharply when I slid my hand under the elastic of her underwear and she squeaked when I ran a finger across her. By that point, I had managed to figure out where to touch her to get the best results (say what you will about Ravenclaws, but we're nothing if not fast learners) so I slid one finger inside to try and find the appropriate spot. She moaned softly when I found it, and moaned again much louder when I sucked on the side of her neck as well. When I added another finger, she gripped my hair tightly with one hand and dug her nails into my back with the other.

"If it's that distressing you can always tell me to stop, you know," I teased, lightly kissing her collarbone and nibbling gently at the junction of her neck and shoulder.

"Don't you dare," she gasped. I smirked and curled my fingers, making her moan again. She came very suddenly and her back arched off the bed while she pulsed around my fingers. She shuddered slightly when I pulled my fingers out but otherwise she looked rather satisfied.

"You know, you're getting rather good at that," she said, recovering her breathing and unbuttoning my jeans.

"Well, you know what they say about practice," I replied with a shrug.

"No need to get cocky about it," she said, unzipping my jeans. I felt my face contract in barely supressed amusement as we both glanced down at my readily apparent junk.

"You sure?" I asked, trying not to laugh. "Because he disagrees."

"I will never understand why blokes refer to their dicks as autonomous beings," she replied, sliding my jeans down past my hips and then making me stand up to take them off entirely.

"Better than Tom or Logan, who have both named theirs," I said.

"They've _named_them?" Tia asked, sounding somewhere between horrified and deeply amused. "I can't imagine Rian's going to be as amused by that as Logan is."

"Well, they've both got a thing for Dean Winchester, so hopefully it'll work out," I replied dismissively.

Tia burst out laughing, which considering her state of undress made her boobs jiggle rather delightfully. She didn't stop laughing, unfortunately, and I got exactly nothing for several hours besides blue balls. She finally did pay attention to me about half an hour before we were supposed to go down to dinner to make sure Rian and Logan had a good time.

They sat across from each other, as was normal, and would glance uncomfortably across the table at the other every once in a while.

"So what'd you guys do?" Tia asked, picking at my food while I stared rather transfixed at her lips.

"Nothing," Rian and Logan chorused, still sounding deeply uncomfortable.

"Well, did you at least have fun?" Tom asked.

They shrugged in perfect unison.

"Did you go to the Shrieking Shack?" I asked.

"Would you leave us the fuck alone, mate?" Logan asked, giving me, Tom, and Tia a perturbed look. All three of us recoiled slightly, but nodded and stopped asking them about their date.

After dinner, Logan and Tom headed towards the dungeons and I cornered Rian.

"So?" I asked. She shrugged in the most noncommittal way possible.

"It was...weird," she said finally. Much like the day I had told her to stop being an idiot, she sat on one of the desks and pulled her knees up to her chest. I sat next to her.

"Good weird or bad weird?" I asked.

"I don't even know," she said with a sigh.

"Are you going to go out again?" I asked.

"Not like that," she replied. "No on that sort of date. It was too weird."

"How was it weird?" I asked.

"He just…he was so nice," she said, sounding bewildered. "And…sweet. And funny. And he bought me chocolate and Butterbeer and showed me how to melt chocolate caramels into my Butterbeer to make it even better and-"

"And now you have a huge crush on him and it freaks you out?" I summarised.

"Maybe," she admitted in a small voice. I laughed and hugged her around the shoulders very quickly.

"Don't freak out about it," I recommended. "I'll see you tomorrow at eleven in the Charms classroom for whatever the fuck that is."

She nodded and I left her there in the dark.

OOooOOooOOooOO

Professor MacMillan paced the room looking deeply uncomfortable. He took a deep breath to steel his nerves, let it out, and then resumed being just as awkward as he had been before.

"What do you suppose we're meant to be learning?" Tia whispered, her lips ghosting across my ear and reminding me rather intimately that she was quite good at doing better things with her mouth.

"I've no idea," I mumbled, trying to beat back the memories that were trying very hard to repeat themselves.

"So…" Professor MacMillan said finally, clapping his hands together and wringing them a moment. "Erm…sex."

He very suddenly had the undivided attention of every single person in the room.

"It has been brought to the school's attention that there has been an overabundance of misinformation propagated by your peers and as such there has also been an increase in venereal diseases and underage pregnancies. To combat this, the school board decided that it was in the school's best interests to give the students fourth year and above a lecture on safe…consummation of relationships," Professor MacMillan explained.

The thirty odd people in our year stared at him in a combination of shock, horror, and barely supressed curiosity.

"Over the next few hours, we will be covering various forms of diseases, both Wizarding and Muggle, also contraception and preventative measures," he continued.

"You won't be covering the mechanics then?" one of the Slytherin boys, Ian McAvery, asked.

Professor MacMillan turned crimson and mumbled something that sounded like, "I should hope that you could figure that out for yourselves."

He spent the next three hours talking in a monotone about the various different horrible things that could happen if you had sex. Everyone looked equally horrified by this, perhaps especially me and Tia since I was almost a hundred percent sure we were getting more action than anyone else in the year. And then he started rambling about anatomy and related health and seemed to say without being able to help himself, "And actually, there's either fructose or glucose in semen-"

"Aren't those both types of sugar?" Chloe Richardsen asked, looking mildly repulsed.

"Yes, I believe so, Miss Richardsen," Professor MacMillan replied.

"But it doesn't taste like-"

Everyone in the class turned to stare at Tia with hawk-like looks.

"What?" Professor MacMillan asked, looking disturbed.

"What?" Tia squeaked while she turned scarlet and sank as low as possible in her chair. Everyone in class kept staring at her. The girls looked judgemental, while the boys looked like they very much wanted to ask her how she knew.

I wasn't even sure how we managed to make it out of the class without bursting into flames from the embarrassed heat radiating off Tia. But we did, and then she sprinted out of the classroom as fast as possible.

"Nice one, Lupin," one of the Gryffindor boys said, clapping me on the shoulder.

"Fuck off," I replied, glaring at him.

"Is it true what they say about bookworms?" Ian McAvery asked. "Because if it is, once you're done with her, I might like a slice. Do you suppose she'd suck me off on the first date or would I have to buy her-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence before I had punched him in the face.

He recoiled, holding his bleeding nose. "Oi, McEwan, call your bloody mutant off," he demanded, giving Logan an imploring look.

"Do you want me to hold him down while you kidney punch him?" Logan replied, looking very much like he also wanted to beat Ian McAvery up.

"Teddy, you might need to let me into your dormitory," Rian mumbled while Logan and Ian McAvery got in a fist fight.

"What for?" I asked.

"So I can make sure she's alright, as you can't get into her room," Rian replied.

"I'll take you," Tia's roommate, Scarlet Atwater, piped up, pulling Rian away by the wrist.

Once she was gone, Tom and I joined into the fist fight and didn't stop until Professor MacMillan and Professor Longbottom and Professor Davies pulled us apart.

"This is twice this term, Tom, Teddy," Professor Longbottom scolded.

"Hey, at least this time we weren't fighting each other," Tom grumbled, his knuckles bloody from their impact with McAvery's face. Lee Adams of Gryffindor had also joined into the fight at some point, but I wasn't sure when.

"Yes, because four against one is certainly better," Professor Davies replied, giving me a death stare.

"You didn't hear what he was saying," Logan grumbled. He was sporting a black eye and a split lip. I was pretty convinced my nose was broken but I didn't want to touch it to test the theory.

"It must have been something quite incendiary to produce _this_," Professor Longbottom said, sounding unimpressed. McAvery was lying unconscious on the floor in a puddle of his own blood with his face swollen almost to a point of unrecognizability.

"There was an…incident…during our lecture," Professor MacMillan said.

"The short version is that McAvery called Tia a slag and Teddy intervened to defend her honour," Lee Adams translated. I decided on the spot that I liked him.

"Even though he may have been responsible for defiling it in the first place," Chris Anderson of Hufflepuff mumbled. One of the Hufflepuff girls smacked him upside the head.

"Look, Professors, assign me your detentions, I'll take them happily, but right now my girlfriend is very upset and I'd like to go make sure she's okay," I said, gingerly touching my nose to try and stop the blood flowing freely from it. McAvery had got in a few punches before we knocked him unconscious.

"Your detention will be posted," Professor Davies said. He had a soft spot for Tia, so I figured he would want me to check on her.

I nodded and ran towards the Ravenclaw common room. It was entirely empty, for which I was thankful. That way, no one was around to laugh at me while I tried unsuccessfully to scale the wall next to the girls' stairs so I could make sure Tia was alright. On my third failed attempt, Scarlet Atwater came down the stairs to see what was going on and gave me a very pitying look.

"I'm sorry, Teddy," she said, avoiding my gaze.

"What happened? Is she okay?" I asked.

"Maybe eventually, but not right now," Scarlet replied. "And she doesn't want to see you."

"Well, tell her I'm around when she does want to see me," I said.

"No, you don't understand," Scarlet replied. "She doesn't want to see you. She's breaking up with you."

"O-oh," I said. "O-okay. Tell her I'm sorry, would you?"

Scarlet nodded and turned to go back up the stairs. I sat down in one of the chairs in the common room and realised I just felt numb. Not sad necessarily, just numb. But then I figured that maybe the shock just hadn't set in yet, and with that pleasant thought, I took myself up to my dormitory, closed the curtains, and tried to mentally prepare myself for the oncoming storm.

**Review!**


	15. Summer

**A/N: I'm so sorry for the slow updates! I don't really have free time anymore since classes started (****and I spend all my time catching up on Supernatural and blogging about it on tumblr.) ****Thank you for your patience! Updates will now be scheduled to be on Fridays! Thanks for reviewing: Tom, Blood and Dark Chocolate, FairyLightsAndGlitter, Prunella7, blue21, sooooooooooooo, musingmarauder, and PrettyLittleDiary. You guys are cool. **

Chapter Fourteen – Summer

(Victoire)

"I just feel so bad for her," Hannah said while the three of us sat on Rian's bed. Rian herself was trying to pack her things for returning home, and the three of us were sharing a gigantic slab of chocolate and watching her pack. Rian's dormmates, Adelaide and Chloe, were off perpetuating the horrible rumour mill about Tia.

"I'd feel worse for her if half the things everyone's saying weren't true," Kate replied. "I mean, she and Teddy really did get up to some stuff."

"After they'd been dating for a year," Rian pointed out. "They'd been in a relationship for almost a full year before they did anything beyond snog. At that point, it's kind of understandable."

"Not that any of us would have anything to base that information off," I mumbled.

"True," Kate and Hannah agreed.

"You never told us how your date with Logan went," I added, breaking off a piece of chocolate and handing it to Rian as a peace offering. She was livid about the way people were treating Tia and none of us blamed her. Especially since most of the blokes in school kept congratulating Teddy on his accomplishments while they called Tia a slut. It didn't matter that they had broken up immediately after everything came to light.

"It was really nice and that made it really weird," Rian replied, finally ceasing to pack and instead sitting on her trunk. She was more than a full foot taller than Kate, which made it very hilarious when they sat next to each other. As it was – Rian on the trunk, Kate on the bed – they were the same height for once.

"Wait…Logan was really nice?" Kate asked, sounding confused.

"Logan's a hopeless romantic," I pointed out. "I'm sure he's very nice the moment you get him away from the Slytherins."

"I'd really like to get him away from the Slytherins," Rian grumbled. All four of us winced. Ever since the sex-ed lecture that had ended Teddy and Tia's relationship, and the ensuing fist fight between Logan, Tom, Teddy, Lee Adams, and Ian McAvery, Logan had been sporting various bruises every time he went out in public as a result of having to share a room with Ian McAvery.

"Well, it's almost summer," Hannah said comfortingly. "And then he won't be anywhere near the Slytherins."

"No, he'll be around his dad," Rian replied, breaking off a piece of the chocolate bar. "Who now resents his children. And then he'll be back at Hogwarts with the Slytherins who are going to give him all sorts of shit for dating a Gryffindor."

"So you're dating then?" I asked.

Rian blushed and ignored me.

"Come on, it's been two weeks since your date," Hannah said. "You can't seriously expect us to believe you've just avoided him since then."

"No," Rian admitted. "But we haven't talked about it either. The whole Tia-Teddy shitstorm has been rather preventative. Kind of a warning saying, 'here, don't be in a relationship at Hogwarts in fourth year because if anyone finds out you've done anything beyond snogging, your reputation will be shot, stabbed, poisoned, and then lit on fire and left for dead in a dumpster on the side of the highway.'"

"Make it bludgeoned instead of left for dead, and make it a river instead of the highway and you've just summarised the various assassination attempts on Rasputin," I piped up. I quickly took another bite of chocolate while the three of them stared at me.

"Do you want to date Logan?" Kate asked once they had recovered from the bewilderment at my existence.

"I-" Rian started. Before she could finish her statement, there was a sharp knock on the window. The four of us jumped and turned to discover three brooms floating outside the window. Rian undid the latch and the three boys flew inside looking windswept and very proud of themselves.

"Ooh, chocolate!" Tom exclaimed, jumping onto Rian's bed, sprawling at our feet, and taking a chocolate frog out of my hands.

"What are you lot doing here?" Rian asked, surveying Teddy and Logan suspiciously. Tom, she seemed to have accepted as a semi-permanent fixture whenever chocolate was involved.

Teddy looked a little depressed, I noted. His normally turquoise hair was a faded shade of light brown and his normally grey eyes had dulled to mud. Logan, on the other hand, looked relatively elated and was sporting a rather magnificent black eye that covered half his face.

"Got bored, figured we'd stop in and say hi," Tom explained with a shrug while Rian gently reached up to poke Logan's eye with a concerned look on her face. I noted for the first time that Tom and Logan were both much taller than Rian, which was impressive since Rian was rather tall.

"And then there's the final Quidditch game tomorrow, so I figured I'd come lurk about with the competition," Logan added, grinning at Rian and then flinching when she touched his eye.

"If the prefects find you lot in here," I said.

"They won't," Tom assured me, rolling over like a cat and ending up sprawled across Kate's, Hannah's, and my legs. Automatically, I started playing with his hair and his eyes fluttered shut.

"No they're all off being cockblocks because they feel like it," Teddy grumbled, lounging on one of Rian's roommates' beds.

"Oh honey," Kate replied, giving him a pitying look. "You'll be fine."

Teddy continued to look put out until Tom casually mentioned it was time for dinner. As a unit, the seven of us ran for the stairs, only to remember belatedly that there were three boys in our mix. The stairs let out a wail and then turned into a slide, shooting all of us down into the common room where we landed in the least dignified heap possible, only to be glared at by the prefects who pointed out that not only had there been boys in the girls' dormitories, one was a Ravenclaw and one was a Slytherin. We grinned apologetically, collected Michael and David from their sofa, and ran down to the Great Hall before they could scold us. We met Nick at the Hufflepuff table and sat down out of breath.

"Because we definitely could use another detention," Tom said, rolling his eyes at Teddy. Teddy grimaced back and went about picking at his food.

"Oi," Logan said, flicking Teddy in the side of the head. "So your first relationship went pear shaped. You don't get to mope for ages."

Teddy glared at him. "Can I have til the end of the year?"

The rest of us exchanged conferential glances and then nodded in agreement.

"You know we're going to kick your arse tomorrow, right?" Rian asked Logan, challenging him with a piece of toast.

"There's no way in hell," Logan replied. "Not unless Tommy breaks my fingers again."

"I didn't break them," Tom insisted. "And don't call me Tommy. I just dislocated them."

"Because that makes it so much better," Kate replied while the rest of the boys laughed.

"What about you three? You going to go out for Quidditch?" Logan asked them.

"No," Michael and David replied instantly.

"Maybe," Nick said. "I dunno yet."

"What position do you play?" I asked.

"Probably Chaser or Keeper or something," Nick replied. "What about you?"

"Chaser," I said. "It would be fun to play against you."

"Yeah, you too," Nick said with a smile. I noticed for the first time that he had two small scars on the side of his lip.

We spent the rest of dinner talking about the end of the year and the classes we should take next year, and who we thought was going to be made prefect from Hearts on Fire's year.

The next morning, we got up early to acquire breakfast and then made our way down to the pitch. Since the final game was between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Teddy and Adrian Calloway had dressed up in Slytherin colours to support Logan while the rest of us got to cheer for Gryffindor. Everyone gave us strange looks while we all sat down together in our clashing green and red outfits, but none of us spared them a second glance.

"I hope we win," Michael said. "It would be kind of awesome."

"Only kind of?" I asked. "It would be amazing!"

"I had no idea you cared so much about Quidditch," Michael replied. I shrugged and turned to cheer along with everyone else as the Gryffindor team was announced.

The Slytherins flew out moments later and the game commenced. Tom and Logan were certainly the most entertaining parts of the game to watch, since every so often they flew close enough to the stands that we could hear them taunt each other as they battled over the Quaffle.

Slytherin's Seeker was a skinny sixth year named Renfrew who spent most of the game following Rian around the pitch. When they finally went into a dive, it was at such a steep angle that everyone in the game stopped playing to watch, and everyone in the stands ended up on our feet so we could stare with baited breath.

They were neck and neck as they fell towards the ground, and then suddenly Renfrew veered off, scared to hit the ground. It was very clear that Rian wasn't going to be able to pull up in time, no matter how good she or her broom were. At the very last second, she let go of her broom and grabbed the tiny speck of gold I could barely see from my vantage point, before she collided with the ground at full speed. While the entire school gasped in horror, she stood up shakily and held the Snitch in the air.

The stands exploded in loud cheers while the Gryffindors rushed the pitch to cheer on the team. As we got closer, it became apparent that Rian had definitely broken her leg if not anything else.

Logan landed next to her and seemed to be debating the best way to be concerned.

"Good game," he said finally.

"Thanks," Rian replied, wincing and putting one hand on her ribs. Then very suddenly, she wrapped the arm holding the Snitch around Logan's shoulders and kissed him. I was close enough to see his eyes shoot open in shock before he relaxed into it and snogged her.

"It's about damn time," Tom shouted from next to me where he was in the process of being lifted up by the rest of Gryffindor House in celebration.

"Great catch," Teddy complimented, clapping Rian on the shoulder and being as much a cockblock as any prefects he might have hated.

Rian squeaked in pain and stopped kissing Logan. He had a dazed look in his eye and a goofy grin plastered across his face.

"Thanks," Rian said. "I need to go to the hospital wing now."

Without saying anything, Logan scooped her up and carried her off towards the school while the rest of us continued to celebrate in the middle of the pitch.

"You shouldn't have interrupted them," I scolded, lightly slapping Teddy in the arm.

"Whoops," he replied.

The remainder of the year passed quickly. Exams went by and then were over and then we were all back on the train to London. Because we felt the compulsive need to shove everyone into the same compartment, Rian ended up in Logan's lap while Kate sprawled across Tom, Teddy, and Nick. Michael and David ended up on the floor while Hannah and I had the misfortune to be next to Rian and Logan. Fortunately, they were decent enough people not to spend the whole train ride snogging in front of all of us.

"We should all get together this summer," Kate suggested. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea, but most of us lived in small houses. I had to share a room with my sister, of all odious things, and we didn't have any sort of spare room. Kate had four younger siblings. Hannah lived in a small flat with her dad. Michael lived in a small house with his mum. David had five siblings or something horrid like that and no extra space. Teddy and Andromeda had enough space for a few extra people, but not all of us. Tom and Logan's parents were out of the question.

"I've got space," Nick said.

"For everyone?" I asked.

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "I'll ask my parents and then owl you lot to work out an appropriate time."

"Are you sure?" Teddy asked. Very slowly on the train ride, I noticed his hair was slowly fading back to turquoise.

Nick assured us that he was sure and then we were back at King's Cross. While we made our way off the train, Uncle Harry waved us over. I noticed that "us" included Tom and Logan.

"We'll see you later at Nick's house," Teddy assured Rian, hugging her goodbye. Tom hugged her as well, and she hugged me. Harry was scooping up Pan and ruffling Teddy's hair while Logan and Rian stared at each other. The rest of us pretended not to pay attention while they kissed each other goodbye.

"So how was second year?" Harry asked as we walked out to the car. Tom and Logan were fascinated by it and seemed very enthusiastic to ride in one. Teddy jumped in the front seat before any of us could protest and then I ended up wedged in the back between Tom and Logan.

"Second year was much better than first," I replied.

"She's got us now, y'see," Tom explained, scratching Pan behind the ears.

"And how was fourth year for you lot?" Harry asked.

"Depends on which of us you ask," Logan replied. "My year was great."

"I noticed," Harry said, glancing at the three of us in the rear view mirror. "You and Rian did seem slightly…friendlier…than normal."

Logan stumbled into something between a blush and a sheepish grin.

"What about you, Tom? Any girls for you?" Harry asked.

"Nah," Tom replied. "I spent too much of term sore over my parents."

"And how's Tia?" Harry asked, glancing sideways at Teddy.

His hair faded immediately to brown while the three of us in the back seat winced. I had assumed that Teddy would've told Harry, but apparently that wasn't the case.

"She chucked me," Teddy said shortly.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Harry replied.

This resulted in the rest of the car ride being nothing but awkward silence. When we got to the Potters' house, I bid goodbye to the boys and Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry and jumped into the Floo.

"Victoire, you left your room in shambles over Christmas," my mother informed me the moment I stepped out of the fireplace.

"No I didn't," I replied. My half of the room had been spotless when I left over Christmas. "Nika must have chucked her things all over my room."

"Don't try to brush the blame off on someone else, Victoire," she said haughtily.

"You didn't even say 'hi'," I insisted. "You just started straight in on accusing me of something I didn't do."

"Don't take that tone with me, Victoire," she snapped.

"I wasn't taking any tone!" I shouted, most definitely taking a tone now.

"Bill!" she called into the house.

"Dad!" I yelled.

"What?" he asked, skidding sideways into the living room and scooping me into a hug.

"Deal with your daughter," my mother requested before she stalked out of the room with all her Veela grace.

I gaped at her retreating back. "I didn't even do anything," I mumbled.

It turned out that this was the tone of the entire summer. My mother accused me of various ineptitudes without any base in reality while my dad tried and failed to play peace keeper. She was more than glad to be shot of me when Nick got around to inviting us all for the last week of summer. I packed up all my things in bad grace and stalked off to the Floo. Dad would be taking me, Pan, and my things.

I was completely relieved when we stepped out of the fireplace and it took me a long moment to process what I was looking at. It appeared that I was in a foyer. Like, a proper foyer, with highly polished herringbone floors and whispering wizarding portraits who seemed to be gossiping about me and my father and Pan while we dusted the soot off. There were marble columns in the entryway of their house. Although, I counted it as a house for all of ten seconds before I decided there was no way in hell it was a house and it was probably a mansion.

"I didn't know your friend Nick was this wealthy," Dad muttered.

"Neither did I," I replied.

Just then, Nick skidded into the entryway and slid on the floors in his socks. I hadn't ever seen him out of his Hogwarts uniform, so it was a little disconcerting to see him in his jeans and a t-shirt.

"Hey," he said, slipping to a stop and running a quick hand through his close cropped caramel hair.

"Hi," I replied, trying not to stare at anything. "Where is everyone?"

"You're actually the first to show," he replied with an apologetic shrug. "And you must be Mr Weasley."

"Yes," Dad agreed. "And do you have parents – Nicholas, was it?"

"Erm, just Nick, and yeah they're in the library," Nick replied.

"Library?" Dad and I repeated in slightly stunned unison. The only person in our family with a library was my aunt Hermione and that was only because she had turned the spare room in their house into one.

"Erm, it's this way," Nick said, leading the way up a curved, grand staircase and into a wide open, airy room covered in bookshelves and lounges. "Mum, Dad, the Weasleys are here."

"Ah, nice to meet you," a man who had to be Nick's dad said. Unlike Nick, he was tall and broad in the shoulders and seemed completely laid back. "My wife keeps saying the Weasleys are highly respected in your world."

"You're a Muggle?" Dad asked, looking just as fascinated as Granddad Weasley would.

Mr Heller looked at Nick for some sort of explanation. Nick just nodded.

"So what is it you do?" Dad asked, looking curious about what sorts of jobs Muggles could have.

"Well, mostly public relations nowadays, but I was in the RAF for fifteen years or so," Mr Heller replied. "I'm still in the reserves."

"The RAF?" Dad asked.

"I'll show you to your room," Nick whispered, edging out of the room to leave the dads alone in their shop talk. We were halfway down the hall when there was a telltale clatter from the entryway. Very quickly, we ran down the stairs to discover Teddy, Logan, Tom, and Rian. Rian and Logan seemed to be having some sort of verbal combat.

"Look, _you're_ the one who disappeared for three hours," Rian said. "At least tell me where the hell it was you went."

"Nothing!" Logan insisted, edging away from her with his trunk, broom, and bass guitar clutched close.

"Mate, three hours is a long time to spontaneously disappear," Teddy pointed out. I noted that his hair was turquoise again.

"What happened?" I asked, alerting them to our presence.

"Oh hey Victoire," Teddy said, lifting his hand in greeting. "Nick."

"Levente disappeared for three and a half hours and won't tell us where he went," Tom explained. He turned and raised an eyebrow at his brother with a very pointed look.

Finally, with an annoyed sigh and a blush, Logan hooked a finger onto the neck of his t-shirt and pulled it down slightly. This revealed a black pentagram surrounded by black flames tattooed just below his collarbone.

"Seriously?" Teddy and Tom demanded.

"What?" Logan exclaimed, looking defensive.

"Don't you have to be eighteen to get a tattoo?" Rian asked, her head tilting sideways.

"Not if you lie," Logan replied.

"Well, on the bright side, you're now safe from demonic possession," Rian said, giving him a slightly perturbed look. "Hey Nick, where are we supposed to be staying?"

"Right this way," Nick replied, gesturing up the stairs. The four of them gathered their things and followed us up the stairs. "I mean, we're all going to have to bunk up together, but I figured we'd probably all be okay with that in some form or another."

The five of us nodded as Nick dropped Teddy and Tom off in one of the rooms. Rian and I were deposited in the next.

"Logan went out and got a tattoo?" I asked. "That somehow guards him from demonic possession?"

Rian sighed and rolled her eyes. "No, it doesn't really," she said. "It's from his favourite television show, _Supernatural_. We've had to listen to him exclaim all summer about the fact the ninth series starts in October. He's bothered Adrian to fix up a laptop for him so that he can somehow get some American website called Hulu, I don't even know."

I laughed and started straightening my things on the spare bed I was going to sleep on for the next week. "Does it bother you that he's got a tattoo?"

Rian blushed and twisted her very short braids uncomfortably. "Bother is the wrong word."

I raised my eyebrow and cuddled Pan while I sat cross-legged on the bed. "What's the right word?"

"It would be immoral to – erm, never mind," she said, continuing to blush while she straightened her own things.

I kept raising my eyebrow at her. "You like his tattoo, don't you?"

"Yes," she agreed. "Yes I do. Oh, god, and we're going to have to do prefect duty together this year alone in dark corridors late at night...this isn't going to end well."

"Oh yeah, who else made prefect in your year? Logan and you and..." I prompted, decided to let her embarrassment about wanting to jump her boyfriend go.

"Not Tom or Teddy because they're both too detention prone," she replied. "Tia is the girl from Ravenclaw so that should be good."

"Maybe it'll help her reputation a bit," I agreed. "And who's the new Gryffindor Quidditch captain?"

Rian grinned. "I am," she said. "So I hope you spent your summer practicing because we need two new Chasers."

I nodded in agreement and decided that maybe, just maybe, this year was going to be even better than the last.

**Review!**


	16. I Don't Care

**A/N: NO I HAVEN'T ABANDONED THIS. Sorry it took me so long to update, I'm having a really shitty quarter and started a different story for Supernatural because it wouldn't leave me alone, and my novel has been bothering me, and I have to go to class and work and shit and so this took a while. Forgive me while I curse prolifically in the author's note for no good reason. Thanks for reviewing - Prunella7, noodlesandcheese, Tom, Blood and Dark Chocolate, PrettyLittleDiary, darkhk, blue21, babydoll, Guest (times 3), and HugsForSkittles.**

**Disclaimer: The lyrics belong to Fall Out Boy. **

Chapter Sixteen - I Don't Care

The last week of summer was excellent. We spent most of it playing Quidditch in the back of the Hellers' house and then suddenly it was time to go back to Hogwarts. On our way to the train, we had to acquire Nick's little sister Alyssa and, of course, Adrian.

"We have to go to the Prefect meeting," Rian said apologetically, pulling Logan out of the compartment almost as soon as we'd sat down.

"Yeah, alright, just don't pause to shag in the corridor," I grumbled.

"In the corridor? Seriously?" Logan replied.

"I mean, honestly, we'd at _least_ barricade ourselves in the loo first," Rian added with a complete deadpan. Tom and I exchanged horrified looks and shooed them out of the compartment.

"They're going to be insufferable all year aren't they," Tom said once they were gone. I nodded, well aware that it was an eventuality, not a question.

"Are they actually having sex?" Adrian asked, looking up from the technology he had dismantled and left on the table.

Tom and I frowned and paused to try and figure out the answer to that question.

"You know, I really don't know," I said finally. They joked about it often enough and they certainly spent a lot of time snogging, but I had absolutely no idea if they were actually shagging.

"So Adrian," Tom said after a long pause. "When are we going to get you a girlfriend?"

Adrian gave him panicked eyes and went back to playing with his dismantled mobile phone.

"Boyfriend?" I tried.

Adrian didn't respond. We were still badgering him about whether or not he wanted a significant other of any gender when Rian and Logan returned from their prefect's meeting. It took exactly 0.0002 seconds for us to figure out Rian was pissed.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Of all the low down dirty creeps to ask to be a prefect," Rian grumbled, sitting down next to Adrian with all her limbs crossed tightly.

"Who?" I asked.

"My partner, Clarice Bryn," Logan replied, falling onto the seat next to Rian with his arm wrapped around her shoulder in what was clearly supposed to be a comforting way.

"What happened?" Tom asked, looking genuinely interested as though it was a train wreck.

"So Tia's a prefect for Ravenclaw, right," Rian started, anger seeping into every syllable. "Which makes sense because she's a good student and follows all the rules and everything, right, and Clarice took one look at her sitting in the prefects' compartment and asked whose dick she had to suck to get that job."

My stomach immediately started to boil and a vaguely homicidal smile crept onto my face. "Might I go murder her?" I asked.

"The Head Boy fully intends to contest her appointment as prefect," Logan said. "It'll be okay."

"Can I still go kill her?" I asked, seething through gritted teeth.

"It won't help anything," Rian said, continuing to glare at a non-descript point in the distance.

We passed the rest of the ride to Hogwarts in bad humour, except for a brief interlude where Adrian lit his eyebrows on fire, and then we were taking the horseless carriages up to the castle.

I bid goodbye to Tom, Rian, and Logan and Adrian and I sat down at the Ravenclaw table. Nick joined the two of us after a moment, quickly saying goodbye to everyone else. Tia was sitting by herself a ways down the table reading a book. She didn't look very upset, which I took to be a good sign. Moments later, the prefect who had spent the previous year giving us crap for snogging in the common room sat down across from her. After a moment, I noticed he was wearing the Head Boy badge. Tia smiled thinly at him while he tried to make conversation, but it didn't look like anything that needed intervention so I let it alone.

The Sorting groups got larger each year we got away from the war. I recognised a few names – Kate's little sister Heather Connors, Alyssa Heller of course, Jake Thomas who I recognised as Tia's little brother immediately. Heather was in Hufflepuff which seemed to make Kate very happy. Alyssa was in Ravenclaw with us, while Jake was in Gryffindor. Nick made Alyssa sit far away from the three of us with her year.

Towards the end of the Sorting was Molly Weasley – proud Gryffindor – and we finished it off with Liam Wood, also of Gryffindor.

The three of us ate in relative silence while the noise of the Great Hall picked up around us. After dinner was over and the announcements had been made, we headed back to the Ravenclaw common room. I bid goodbye to Nick and Adrian and walked into my own room. My guitar was lying on my bed looking tantalising but my roommates were both pulling on their pyjamas and gave me a dark look when I unzipped my case. I grimaced apologetically at them and set it on its stand instead.

"Your girlfriend got some flack," Ethan Boot informed me while I dug out my toothbrush.

"Ex-girlfriend," I corrected, ducking into the washroom to brush my teeth. "And I heard."

I barely heard him over the faucet, but I could've sworn he said, "She wouldn't…date me, maybe, would she?"

I spat out my toothpaste and evaluated him briefly with a highly suspicious look. "Erm…no," I said, rinsing the suds out of my mouth and digging out my pyjamas.

"She dated a blue-haired freak, but she wouldn't date me," Ethan retorted, giving my hair a dark look. I resented the fact I was shorter than him, but there was nothing I could do about that just yet. Instead, I settled for toning my muscles before I took off my shirt and ruffled my hair. As I ruffled it, it transitioned from turquoise to magenta and rearranged itself into a Mohawk.

I spread my hands in a "what can you do?" gesture at him and climbed into bed.

I left my hair that way when I turned up to breakfast the next day. Kate touched it curiously and then shook her head in a slightly disapproving way.

"I need to become absolutely abhorrent," I announced, stealing a kipper off Tom's plate.

"Well, you're ninety percent there if you keep stealing my food," he replied.

"I don't think you need to do much else," Victoire added, stirring a spoonful of sugar into her coffee. "But, erm, why?"

"Ethan Boot wants to ask Tia out, and gave me shit for being a blue-haired freak, so I wanted to actually be a proper freak," I replied. "Just to completely destroy his hope."

"I have some black nail polish you can borrow," Victoire said.

Rian giggled evilly. "We could give you tattoos," she suggested. "Logan, you know a guy, don't you?"

"Mine is an actual tattoo though," Logan pointed out, his hand closing protectively over the spot under his collarbone where he had got his demon warding tattoo.

"I wonder if I can do tattoos," I mumbled, stretching my arms out and willing a dragon to coil around my forearm. It obligingly appeared. I grinned evilly and gave myself proper sleeves.

"You're trying to destroy his soul, right? Or something?" Michael asked.

"That's the idea," I agreed.

"Gages," Hannah said with a declarative nod.

"What?" Tom asked. He had been fixated on colouring in one of the designs on my arm with his quill. "What's a gage?"

"Holes in your ears," Rian explained.

"I'll go with the tattoos and the hair and the black nail polish," I said. "Vicky, can I borrow that?"

"As long as you never call me Vicky again under any circumstance," she replied, pushing her glasses up her nose and taking a drink of her coffee.

"Deal," I agreed.

She turned up at lunch with the polish and made me sit still while she painted my nails. After she was done, she painted her own and I noticed a smudge of black eyeliner under her normally makeup–less face.

"Are you wearing makeup?" I asked curiously. As far as I knew, she had never worn makeup. As I asked, I noticed that most of her spots were gone and instead the only blemishes on her face were the freckles that dusted under her eyes.

She blushed slightly. "I'll let you borrow my eyeliner if you'd like," she said, setting our nails with her wand. "Also, you know he'll be suspicious if you suddenly have all those tattoos. If you bring them up gradually he'll actually think they're real instead of part of your metamorphmagus thing."

I blinked in shock when I realised she was right and let them fade away down to a flaming heart on my bicep.

"When did you get smart, Gryffindork?" I asked, taking a bite of my lunch.

She raised her eyebrow at me in a completely disinterested way. "Remember how we always thought I was going to be in Ravenclaw and you would be in Hufflepuff?"

I cringed and nodded. "Fair enough."

When I got back to the dorm that night after spending the entire day listening to our professors lecture us about OWLs and the importance of paying attention this year since we would be required to sit through them at the end of the year, Ethan was taking off his shoes and settling in to do his homework. He looked scandalised when he saw me. I smiled cheerfully at him and he panicked into staring down at his book.

I snorted and grabbed my guitar and my lyrics notebook. I had an idea.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"We have a new song!" I announced once we had assembled everyone together in our practice room. It was our first new song of the school year and everyone looked appropriately excited.

"What's it called?" David asked. I noted that he was sitting a little closer to Hannah than normal.

"I don't care," Tom replied, plucking a guitar string.

Everyone else exchanged confused looks and Rian started the drum intro.

I snickered to myself and started to sing.

_Say my name and his in the same breath. I dare you to say they taste the same_

_Let the leaves fall off in the summer and let December in flames_

_Brace myself and let go, start it over again in Mexico_

_These friends, they don't love you, they just love the hotel suites now_

_I don't care what you think as long as it's about me_

_The best of us can find happiness in misery_

_Said I don't care what you think as long as it's about me_

_The best of us can find happiness in misery._

_Take a chance let your body get a tolerance_

_I'm not a chance but a heatwave in your pants_

_Pull a breath like another cigarette, palms up I'm trading up_

_I'm the oracle in my chest, let the guitar scream like a fascist_

_Sweat it out, shut your mouth, free love on the streets,_

_But in the alley it ain't that cheap, now_

_I don't care what you think as long as it's about me_

_The best of us can find happiness in misery_

_I don't care what you think as long as it's about me_

_The best of us can find happiness in misery_

_Said I don't care just what you think as long as it's about me_

_Said I don't care just what you think as long as it's about me_

_Said I don't care. I don't care, said I don't care, I don't care_

_I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. _

_I don't care what you think as long as it's about me. _

_The best of us can find happiness in misery. _

_Said I don't care what you think as long as it's about me. _

_The best of us can find happiness in misery. _

We finished the song to general applause.

"You guys are kind of ridiculous and kind of awesome at the same time," Nick said.

"We're ridiculous?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. Fortunately for my sanity, he was still shorter than me, unlike Michael and David.

"I thought you said you didn't care," Victoire pointed out, glancing at Nick out of the corner of her eye. "And it was a good song."

"Hey, you two are going to Quidditch try outs tomorrow, right?" Rian asked, gesturing at Victoire and Kate with one of her drumsticks.

"Wouldn't miss it," Kate promised, hugging the lot of us goodbye. She lingered at Tom and then left, Victoire, Nick, Michael, Hannah, and David trailing after her. Adrian remained and looked at a loss.

"Adrian, do you have other friends?" Tom asked finally with a sincerely concerned expression on his face. "People in your year?"

Adrian shook his head.

"We need to get that boy laid," Logan decided.

Tom, Rian, and I turned slowly on him and gave him bad looks. Rian looked slightly disgusted that her boyfriend was talking about getting her brother laid, while Tom and I seemed to be of an alternate, although unified, mind.

"What about getting me laid?" we asked in perfect unison.

"Oh, right, you're still a virgin," Logan said, pointing at me with an amused grin. "I forgot, sorry."

Tom glowered at him. "What about me?"

"Well, you're a lost cause," Logan pointed out. "What with being hideous."

Rian and Adrian snorted.

"The family complexion does sit better with darker hair," Rian offered, running one hand through Logan's hair and resting her chin on his shoulder.

Tom glared. "You know Dad thinks you're gay, right?"

Logan frowned. "You talked to Dad?"

"And I told him you were too busy shagging Rian to come to the phone," Tom replied. "I failed to clarify that Rian was short for Marian."

Logan shrugged. "I'm sure he enjoyed the ensuing heart attack."

"I thought you guys didn't talk to your parents," Adrian piped up.

Tom shrugged much the same way Logan had. "He called and wanted to make amends. I told him to piss off so he asked to talk to Levente, but I told him he was too busy getting laid."

Logan nodded as though this was a reasonable response. "Out of curiosity, was I actually occupied at the time?"

"No, you were eating waffles," Tom replied, strumming a few chords on his guitar. "You don't mind, do you?"

Logan shook his head.

"You guys can come for Christmas if you'd like," I offered. "Gran likes you well enough."

"Thanks," Tom said. "We appreciate it."

"What if I want to go to Rian's?" Logan asked.

Rian turned slightly pink and kissed the side of his neck.

"It's not like we'll stop you," I pointed out. "But I should go do homework."

"Fair enough. I'm going to go get coffee," Logan replied.

"Why?" Rian asked. "It's eight."

"Yes, and the season premiere of _Supernatural_ is on at two in the morning," Logan replied. "So I'm going to go acquire myself caffeine and pray."

"Prayer is required now?" Rian asked, following him out of the room.

"There was a heartwrenching promo where Dean was praying to Cas and-" Logan started.

"Was that what you were watching when I walked in on you crying over your laptop?" Rian asked.

Logan turned and glared daggers at Tom, Adrian, and I when we started laughing.

"Don't laugh at me, Gabriel, I was there when you started bawling over _The_ _Angels Take Manhattan_," Logan threatened, pointing an accusing finger at Tom. Rian smoothed his arm and pulled him out of the room.

"Well, back to the important points of the conversation," Tom said, clapping his hands together. "We need to get the three of us laid."

He looked rather manic about it and it made me worry.

"If you suggest an orgy, so help me god," I threatened.

"No, you twisted fuck," Tom replied. "My brother's the one who's gay for Jensen Ackles, not me. Anyways-"

"Arthur Darvill," Adrian said quietly.

"Come again?" I asked.

"Logan might be gay for Jensen Ackles, but you're gay for Arthur Darvill," Adrian elaborated.

Tom considered for a moment. "Yes, but that's beside the point. Now, I'm going to go for a Hufflepuff, because I hear they're easy and I'm a terrible human being. Teddy-"

"You can't be serious," I replied.

"I recommend you go for one of Rian's roommates since you're a Gryffindor prodigy despite being in Ravenclaw and they'll probably go for you," he said. "I suggest Adelaide, since she's pretty."

"Are you forgetting the part where I had a steady girlfriend for a year?" I asked.

"No," Tom replied. "Adrian, I say…your best bet might be Kate, Victoire, or Hannah."

"No," I said.

"Why not?" Tom asked.

"Because they're our friends and that's a stupid idea," I pointed out. "And Adrian is fully capable of getting laid on his own."

Tom, Adrian, and I glanced at each other and it was immediately established that I was full of shit.

"Okay, well, I'm going to go do homework," I said, picking up my guitar and leaving the practice room. I ended up back in the common room at the same time as Tia.

We stood there awkwardly outside the door for a long moment, but neither of us moved to knock on the door.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly.

"You didn't do anything," she mumbled, looking away.

"Then why did you break up with me?" I asked, turning to look at her. She avoided my gaze.

"Do you want the honest answer?" she replied.

"No, I want you to lie to me just for fun," I said, crossing my arms. At least I was taller than Tia. Rian was taller than me, Victoire was taller than me, Hannah was my height. The only girls I spent time with that I was taller than were Kate and Tia.

"I broke up with you because we're fifteen and I cared about my reputation more than our relationship," she said.

My own song echoed through my head proclaiming that I didn't care what my reputation was as long as I had one.

"Yeah, alright," I said, because I figured I could let it go. I could empathise and understand even if I didn't think the same things. And I would take Tom up on his suggestion of one of the Gryffindor girls.

Tia lifted the knocker and answered the question and we entered the common room. As I started to go for my dormitory she stopped me.

"I like your hair," she said, nodding at my magenta Mohawk. I smiled and turned the ends of it turquoise.

"So was the Head Boy just showing his concern or does he like you?" I asked. "Because Ethan Boot definitely likes you."

"Ew, he does?" Tia asked, sounding appalled.

"That's what I said," I agreed. "But yeah, he does. He figured since you dated a blue haired freak he should get preferential treatment for being normal or something."

Tia actually laughed, which I took to be a good sign.

"You didn't happen to mention that I _like_ the weird ones, did you?" she asked.

"No, but I could mention it to the Head Boy if you'd like," I replied. She blushed. "Ah, you do like him."

"Oh shut up," she said, pushing my arm. I laughed.

"Are we friends again?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I suppose," she said. "I miss Rian. I only ever see her at prefect things these days and it's not enough."

"I'm sure she'd be glad to have you back," I replied. Tia nodded, and smiled at me, and then went off to her dormitory. I returned to mine in time to see Ethan Boot give me a suspicious look. "Like my tattoo?" I asked, rolling up my sleeve to reveal the dragon I had added that afternoon. He looked scandalised and edged away from me into the lavatory.

I smirked evilly to myself and grabbed my homework, suddenly under the impression that this year wasn't going to be the worst thing to ever happen.

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